My Secret Obsession
by Kukaburry
Summary: My name is Mia Longbourne. I'm fifteen years old and I have two confessions to make. I am unequivocally obsessed with Fred Weasley. And I may have accidentally killed someone. COMPLETE
1. Prologue

My Secret Obsession

By Kukaburry

Chapter 1- Prologue

* * *

Acceptance is the first step to admitting you have a problem. Or whatever that bullshit is. It's written in so many books that it's hard to keep all of those cheesy sayings straight. Okay, fine, I'll admit my problem. I am obsessed with Fred Weasley. Go ahead: laugh, cry, throw up. I don't care. You're reading this story, so go ahead and bawl your head off and come back when you're done. Better now? Good. Twit. Sorry, it slipped. Alright, so there it is, I'm obsessed with Fred Weasley.

I guess now is the part where I tell you why I'm obsessed with him. There's no real jumping off point. No utter moment of just 'knowing' that he would become my sole interest, but I can damn well remember the first time I met him. When I came to appreciate just how perfect he could be for me. I admit that it took me a good half year to recognize him apart from his brother, but once I did, my stalking became much easier. Oops, I was saving that detail for later.

Anyways, back to the first time I met him. It was my first year at Hogwarts. My family didn't even know I had a magical bone in me until we got the letter. My mom is a witch from Egypt who moved to England to work at the ministry in the International Communications bureau. She met my dad at a muggle pub one night and it was all over for her. Don't get me wrong, I love my dad, but they're so disgustingly in love. You know, those parents who suck face right in front of you? I mean, major ooer, right? So suffice to say they got married a year later and had me, my brother and my sister all in a row. Can I just tell you that it sucks to be the oldest? The little brats always get what they want and I always get blamed for their shit.

Sorry, I got sidetracked again. My sister and brother both showed magical tendencies when they were five, but I basically thought I was going to end up being a Squib. I literally heard my parents sigh in relief when the Hogwarts letter arrived on my eleventh birthday. So I packed up my tiny trunk, caged my insane kitten that my parents bought me for my birthday and trucked off to middle-of-freaking-nowhere. Seriously now, Hogwarts is in the nether regions of the planet. We're witches and wizards, we're magical beings, couldn't we make Hogwarts just a tiny bit easier to get to? I digress.

Right away I didn't fit in at Hogwarts. I got sorted into Gryffindor even though I'm probably the meekest person ever born. The first time you were to set eyes on me, you would think 'Wow she's meek'. I promise, you would. For some reason the hat thought I would be a good addition to the Gryffindor crowd, and yet I have not come to the conclusions of why or how. I am totally incompatible with the Gryffindor hyperness. Everyone is always partying and laughing and enjoying life. I enjoy life as much as the next person, but I don't feel the need to scream it at the top of my lungs every single day.

I wouldn't categorize myself as a cynical person, because I look at many things positively. I know that one day I'll be out of the hell-hole that is Hogwarts and be part of real life. See? That's positive. It's funny when you come to the realization of how people look at you. One day in Muggle Studies class we went around the room and told every person what our first impression of them was. Guess what mine was: 'You're quiet.' 'You're pretty quiet.' 'You don't talk much.' 'You seem to keep to yourself.'

Gee, thanks guys. What a revelation. I like to keep to myself, what a surprise. Yes, I like to practice my spell by myself. Mostly because I'm friggin embarrassed to be called a witch. It takes me days to learn a new spell and everyone else learns it in less than an hour. How do they do it? No, I don't hate them, I'm just jealous. I don't really know why I became a quiet person. I used to yell and scream with everyone else when I was really young. I think it was when my dad got sick and I had to grow up really fast and help my mom take care of my siblings. He was really sick for years until one day he magically got up and started running around like his usual self. A complete miracle, yes, but I was never the same.

So there it is, my existence summed up in a couple of paragraphs. What was I talking about before? Oh right, Fred. How, you ask, did it start? Like I said before, I can't really explain what happened. It gradually progressed over a couple of weeks. I first met Fred first year, like I said, in the most typical way ever. I was the center of one of the twins' pranks. Apparently Fred and George had noticed how quiet I was and had also noticed how much I liked chocolate frogs. No, not like, love. I love chocolate frogs. If it came in liquid form I would sit there and drink it all day long. Needless to say, I'm kind of fat. So back to Fred. The twins, combining these two seemingly casual bits of information, plotted against me.

I was sitting in the common room with Simon (my kitten) on my lap, reading about levitation charms, when I felt someone looking at me. I lifted my head and noticed the twins staring at me. Very blatantly. I'm not a suspicious person, sorry I meant I 'wasn't', a suspicious person. I had never had a prank pulled on me and I was too quiet to have anyone notice me. Or so I thought. One of them, George I later found out, stood up and offered me a couple of his Chocolate Frogs. What a coincidence, I had thought, I love chocolate frogs and I had been thinking about going upstairs to grab some. "Thanks!" I squeaked and took it happily from him.

I took a bite and a strange nutty flavor filled my mouth. "Is there Hazelnut in this?" I asked, mouth full of chocolatey bits (yum, sexy).

"Yeah, it's this cool new flavor we found," the other twin, Fred, said with a perfect smile.

"Wow, thanks. This is really good," I stammered in appreciation. I threw the rest of the frog in my mouth and chewed. "Chocolate Frogs are my favORITE..," I stopped mid-sentence, wondering what was wrong with my throat. "WHAT IS WRONG...," I stopped again. Half of the common room was now looking in my direction, wondering why I was bellowing. Simon dug his claws into my leg and jumped off in a hurry, obviously terrified of how much noise I was making.

Both Fred and George sniggered remorselessly at the look on my face. "DID YOU DO THIS?" I shouted. At least now I felt angry enough to bellow. "THIS IS NOT FUNNY!"

Tears of laughter ran down their cheeks. "Yes," George guffawed. "You were the perfect person to try this on."

"WHY? I HAVEN'T DONE ANYTHING TO YOU." I felt tears welling up, much to my horror. I generally make it a habit to keep all emotions to myself until I'm alone.

Fred grinned impishly at me. "Because you're so flipping quiet all the time."

He thought it was funny, did he? Okay, I'll grudgingly admit that it was kind of funny. I sounded like an opera singer who chain smoked. Alright, I light up a fag every once in a while, but who doesn't when life is stressful? "YOU GUYS SUCK!" I roared, dashing up to my room and jumping into my bed. I stayed there for at least three hours until I heard everyone in my year come in and go to sleep.

Once I was sure that everyone was fast asleep, I padded out the door and back to the common room to pick up my book. "Has the potion worn off yet?" A voice asked from behind me. I whipped around protectively and raised my hands. One of the evil twins was staring at me, bemused. "Calm down, I'm not going to hurt you."

"I can't bee too careful with people like you," I replied hoarsely.

"Wow, that potion did a number on your throat." Yeah, moron, I know. You did it to me! "Does it hurt?"

I rolled my eyes and shook my head. "I'm fine." My voice cracked roughly and he shrugged.

"Alright, well I brought you some butterbeer as an apology. My brother and I like to play jokes on people."

"Yeah, it was just so funny you arse," I bit back harshly. Where had that come from? I usually didn't snap at people out loud.

He held his hands up defensively. "No permanent damage, I promise. You have a very loud voice when you yell." He added with a slight grin.

"Well I'm glad you got to experience it, but I'm only sorry it didn't burst your eardrums," I growled and snatched at the bottle of butterbeer he was holding. Holy shit, I was really being mean. It felt kind of empowering. "Well, whoever you are, I hope you enjoyed the show. I can only hope to never see you again."

"Wait, what's your name?" He asked curiously.

Thinking back, I shouldn't have told him my name. That is exactly where I can pinpoint when people started calling me by my nickname. "My name is Mia Longbourne."

He seemed to ponder my name for several minutes and finally looked up and nodded at me. "Mia, that's the perfect name for a little mouse like you." My horror must have been evident on my face because he grinned fully at me. "You're small, you're quiet and you squeak when you talk."

He sauntered past me up the staircase, completely immune to my fiery thoughts of murder and death. Before her rounded the corner of the stairs, I heard him say something. "My name is Fred Weasley."

The combination of his easy gait, his tall stature and his suave voice had me intrigued. What really nipped at my thoughts was the fact that I had been so talkative because of him. For three weeks after that incident I peeked at him out of the corner of my eye, trying to figure out what it was about him that caused me to speak my mind. I watched him talk with his friends. I watched him plot with his brother. I watched him always take the tomato off of his sandwich. I watched him flirt with girls that were too old for him. It was those three weeks that made me realize something impossible about myself. I had become obsessed with Fred Weasley.

* * *

Hello lovely, smexy, totally deranged readers. New story time! This is my first first-person story I've written for fanfiction. I've written two personal stories in first person, so hopefully this will turn out the way I want it to. Let me know how you like it so far and if there's any details I might have left out about the character so I can address them in the following chapters. You know how it is writing stories, you have the character drawn out in your mind and on paper, but you might not make it clear to the reader. Revision is a writer's best friend! So please review.

~Kukaburry


	2. Dirty White Lies

My Secret Obsession

By Kukaburry

Chapter 2- Dirty White Lie

_*This story is supposed to be humorous so I'm not going to bring any of the more depressing parts of the story in unless I can manipulate them to my advantage.*_

* * *

My parents have always told me that I'm someone special. Of course I used to believe them because children believe that parents never lie. How old were you when you realized your parents weren't always telling you the truth? I was seven when it happened to me. Our puffskein had stopped moving one morning and I was trying to ask my parents what was wrong with it. They told me Chirpy was tired and was taking a long nap. I believed them. The next afternoon my mom came home with Chirpy and handed him to me. "See honey," she said, "Chirpy is all better." I took Chirpy up to my room and began playing with him until I noticed a blue star on the bottom of his belly. Chirpy was all white and this guy was white with this one spot. I knew this was not Chirpy at all, so I threw him out of my room and had the biggest tantrum of my life. My sick dad dragged himself upstairs and had the 'death' conversation with me. I no longer trusted my mom to be truthful to me after that.

So what does that story have to do with me right now? Well this is my account of my obsession with Fred Weasley, but you already know that. First through fourth year, blabity blah, I stalked him and watched him from my silent creeper spot. For your benefit (and sanity), I'm skipping ahead to fifth year of school since that's when things get really interesting. I always had it in my head that I was worth something. Everyone would look at me and realize that I'm someone interesting and fun. I can't even believe how naive I was to think that. By the time fifth year rolled around, my obsession with Fred was completely manic. The only person who really knew what I was thinking was Simon, who now looked like a small black leopard.

No, I'm not saying that I didn't have any friends. I found a couple of friends in Hufflepuff- two girls named Maddie and Sarah- and Ravenclaw- a guy named Dennis and a girl named Allison- that I got along with. Strangely none of them really liked each other except Maddie and Sarah, so I had to devote my time separately among them, but I'll get to them later. It truly astounds me that Fred was able to keep so many friends in every house (not Slytherin of course). I found the most minute things about him interesting.

My new favorite class had become Defense Against the Dark Arts. Mad-eye Moody is positively the most interesting person I've ever had the pleasure of meeting. If you're reading this, you'll already know all about who Mad-eye really was, but that's a completely different issue. He made me feel interested in a subject, and I was glad of it. Professor Lupin had been kind of scary-looking in my opinion, even though he was a great teacher.

That reminds me, flipping Professor Snape. That bastard calls on me to answer questions every freaking day, every single semester. I think it was my second year when someone called me 'Mouse' in class and Professor Snape sneered his condescending sneer and made me talk about the properties of Boar Tusks in creating a Purple Pox Potion. I stuttered and squeaked through the whole thing. He's never let me go a single class without calling me out to talk since then.

I can tell you I preferred Moody's approach to teaching. He never called on anyone who didn't want to answer and he talked most of the class. Yes, Professor Binns talks through the entire class, but he's also dead. It's hard to take his class seriously. It was actually in one of Moody's classes that I heard about other schools maybe coming to Hogwarts. I didn't understand why they would come to Hogwarts. My mom had never mentioned anything to me over the summer, but now that I think about it, she was acting strange and dropping weird hints like 'You're going to have a fun year' and 'Make sure to make new friends'. Okay, maybe I should have been more observant of these minuscule hints, but I had better things (Fred) to occupy my mind.

Of course my fellow Gryffindors went into escalation mode and wouldn't talk about anything else for the rest of the day until dinner. Since the rumor had already spread around half of the school, Dumbledore decided to officially announce it at dinner. We were to expect our company in less than a week. The names sounded vaguely familiar, Durmstrang and Beauxbatons, but nothing more than that.

Luckily, I had managed to get a seat next to Fred for dinner. I almost spit up my dinner when he turned to me with a vast smile and asked me a question. "Do you know what they're planning?"

I stared at him, wide-eyed, and shook my head. He looked slightly disappointed and shrugged. "I thought that since your mum was in the International Cooperation bureau, you might know."

He knew what my mom did? Had he been watching me like I was him? Oh right, his dad was in the ministry too. I didn't want to disappoint him so I made up a story. I put a finger over my lips and motioned for him to lean in towards me. He complied and leaned over. "Don't tell anyone I told you, but I heard that we're part of an international tournament." His fiercely green eyes widened momentarily and I knew I had him hooked. "Yeah, we're going to have a competition between the schools. They're testing to see how strong each school is by comparing their skills in each subject."

It sounded like a plausible idea. Very vague but descriptive at the same time. Fred ate it up. "Wow, really? I wish my brother had told me. He's such an arse."

I giggled appreciatively at his comment. I tried to play up the secretive part to make it sound more legitimate. "Please, don't tell anyone. My mum will get in trouble."

Fred winked at me -sigh- and mimed locking his lips. "Your secret is safe. Thanks for telling me." He turned back to his dinner while I basked in the memory of our conversation.

I'm going to be upfront with you. I'm not really a stalker. I don't go around following Fred in my spare time because, let's face it, that's just creepy. I'm just acutely aware of what other people are saying about him. I'm kind of a narcissist in the fact that I assume people are watching me all the time, even though that's more than likely not true. If I were to actually follow Fred around, someone would notice maybe even, dread the thought, Fred himself.

The next day, I was in for a surprise. Go figure that my little white lie would spread like wild fire all over the school. Everyone was whispering about what kind of tournament it might be and who would be picked to participate. I went out of my way after Potions to hunt down Fred and confront him. "What the hell were you thinking?" I growled as soon as I got him alone.

"What are you talking about?" He asked, face blushing pink.

"You told someone what I said yesterday."

"No, I didn't." His ears were now bright red. I had come to notice over the past five years that whenever he lied, his ears changed colors.

I narrowed my eyes. "You're lying."

He blinked and stared at me curiously. "How do you know that I'm lying? You don't even know me."

It's not like I could come out and tell him the truth about my obsession with him. "You're easy to read." I countered.

"Well, I'm sorry. I didn't tell anyone who I heard it from, though," he replied as though that made it any better. Actually, that did make things better in case my lie blew up in my face. That didn't change the fact that Fred had promised me with a wink that he wouldn't tell anyone. I was thoroughly frustrated with him.

"Whatever. Thanks for not appreciating me," I snapped, turning around and stomping back to the dorms. I ate half a box of chocolate frogs when I got back up there. I was feeling somewhat depressed since this was my first ever fight with Fred Weasley.

I spent the following week sulking about it. The great thing about having friends outside of your house is that they can't see what you do in your house. Maddie and Sarah were generally oblivious to everything so my sulky attitude didn't faze them. I apologize in advance for this comment, but Hufflepuffs are boring and ball-less. Neither of them ever wants to sneak out drinking with me, so I enjoy my bottle of firewhisky and a carton of fags by myself at night. Dennis actually snuck out with me to Hogsmeade on a school night once, but he was kind of traumatized by the bizarre people we ran into at the Hog's Head. Hint: He still can't look at the bloody baron without throwing up.

So I acted more or less the same around my friends and privately whined about my fight with Fred. What made it doubly worse was the fact that Fred didn't seem remotely perturbed about it. At night in the common room, he was he usual jovial self: playing cards, flirting with Angelina and fighting with his younger brother, Ron. I realized that the reason I was so upset was because I had wanted to have a secret between us. That feeling of only the two of you knowing something had felt so invigorating for an entire night. Well, whatever. If Fred wasn't bothered, then I wouldn't be either. No use having an uneven playing field.

I pulled myself together and let all of my ill-feelings leave me. Today was the arrival of the other schools. Several extra tables were added to the dining hall. I walked in early to dinner since I had forgotten to eat lunch and was now wasting away to skin and bones (I wish). Everyone else seemed to be outside greeting the other schools, but I wasn't all that interested. Twenty minutes later the doors opened and the entire school flooded in followed by insanely pretty girls dressed in blue frocks and large burly guys dressed in what I could only describe as bear suits. Where the hell did they live, Antarctica?

Out of the corner of my eye, I watched Fred take a seat directly to my right. My heart slightly jolted since he usually chose to further down the table. He didn't seem ready to speak to me yet, so I blatantly ignored him. That's right; everyone could totally see how icy I was being while staring awkwardly at my hands. That would show him.

"Good evening everyone," Dumbledore bellowed in his old crackly voice. "Let us take a few minutes to welcome our newcomers." Blah blah blah. My eyes slid out of focus while everyone oohed and ahhed. "I would like to announce the reason for the arrival of our guests. We will be hosting the Tri-Wizard tournament!"

Hundreds of gasps flitted around the room, and I wasn't surprised by them. Everyone knows how dangerous the Tri-Wizard tournament is. I felt a nudge against my elbow and I looked over to see Fred's elbow resting against me. He smiled and winked at me with a knowing grin. I understood his expression: he actually thought I knew what I was talking about when I had made up the lie. Now, reader, I will tell you that this does not always happen when you make up lies. I can promise you, I wish I had not made up such a good lie because it probably would have stopped my stint of lies immediately.

"However, we are setting a limit of seventeen years old."

"That's bullshit!" The twins roared in unison. I flinched away slightly from their outrageous reactions, but I recovered quickly. "We'll be seventeen in April!" It seemed like several other people were jumping into the argument as well.

"Silence!" Dumbledore boomed. A heavy quiet fell over the crowd. He walked over to an ornate box encrusted with jewels. He tapped his wand and the box melted away into a torso-sized goblet made of burned-color copper. "Students, please enter your name into this goblet if you wish to enter the tournament. We will have an age line drawn around the goblet to keep any of you students who might try to join otherwise." His gaze flickered towards me and I realized he was looking at Fred and George over my shoulder.

Food popped up on the plates in front of us and the general chatter calmed down. Or so I had thought. "We're going to get over that line." George said to Fred in a low voice.

I felt the word vomit sliding up my throat. My lies were becoming even thicker. "I can help you." I said it so low and right at my hands that I was hoping they hadn't heard me.

"Did mouse just speak?" George asked.

"I think she did," Fred replied with a surprised grin.

George leaned around Fred to look at me. "What were you squeaking?" He asked with a joking grin.

Too late to pull back that comment now. "I said I can help you get over the age line."

* * *

So if you come across some bizarre misspellings, I apologize since my kitten kept walking all over my keyboard while I was writing. Cats always want affection when you're busy. *sigh* Anyways thank you my lovely reviewers. ~Kukaburry


	3. A Hairy Situation

My Secret Obsession

By Kukaburry

Chapter 3 – A Hairy Situation

*For those of you confused about the plot, the last two chapters were introductions to the 'situation'. I have a really big surprise twist for this story that I think everyone will enjoy... I hope... :D I'm excited about it... I want it to happen in this chapter, but that would be too soon.*

* * *

Two days later I found myself huddled in a back corridor with Fred and George planning the potion we were going to make to cross the aging line. I was seriously beginning to regret my impulse lie. Generally when you think of a brilliant idea, you imagine it containing yourself and the object of your affection, not his brother as well.

They looked at me fervently as I described vaguely an aging potion I had read about the night before. Thankfully I was not a complete failure in potions, so I thought I might be able to pull it off. "So I can make the potion tonight," I breathed rapidly, "and give it to you guys tomorrow morning."

"That sounds great."

"I never thought our little mouse could be so devious." Fred added with a chuckle. I know I should have been offended by his comment, but it felt like praise enough to me. "We have to go really early so that the professors can't catch us."

"Yep, and we promise not to say who made the potion. We'll say we did it ourselves. We don't want people jumping all over you to make them the potion too." George seemed so sincere that I couldn't help but trust him.

"Thanks," I mumbled. I wanted George to leave so I could talk to Fred alone. There was nothing wrong with George of course, but he wasn't Fred. He didn't have the same laugh, he didn't have the same look of despair, he didn't smile the same way that Fred did. George couldn't make me feel confidence in myself the way Fred could.

I know what you're thinking, 'Too much information'. Yeah, well, that's too bad.

At this point, I should tell you, I didn't know what the repercussions of making this potion were going to be. I'm going to fill you in on a little secret. It has nearly deadly consequences for Fred, George and me.

"We owe you big," Fred said casually. "Is there anything we can do for you?"

I almost considered asking to be part of their shenanigans. The thought of being involved in a school-wide prank with Fred made me shiver with anticipation, but I just knew I couldn't do it. I knew I would lose my confidence as soon as I saw the goblet. "No, I'm fine." I squeaked, looking at George.

"Well, if you think of anything little mouse, just let us know," George said with a sly grin. "We'll see you tomorrow morning."

I watch them amble away, feeling annoyed with myself for not being more courageous. Smacking myself repeatedly, I turn around and head towards the library to copy down the ingredients of the potion. Honestly, I wasn't bad at potions. In the five years I had been at school, I only had one explosion, and that was because I had been sleepy during class and forgot to take the potion off the fire. Don't judge me, it could happen to anyone.

The library is sort of a mystery to me. It's endless and nothing seems to stay in the same order, so looking for things is essentially useless if you think you know where it is. It's never where you think it is, so the trick is to look where you can't find it and it'll be there. Simple right?

I headed over to the violent charms section and began browsing. The book appeared right in front of me: 'Simple Aging Potions'. It's all in the name. After writing everything down, I amble back to my room to get my collapsible cauldron and the necessary ingredients. It took me three tries to get the potion to turn a sky blue color and another two tries to get it to turn amber after that. I sat back three hours later and let it simmer. I looked at my watch and realized it was 3am, then yawned loudly. "Shit this is taking forever," I grumbled to myself.

The amber liquid in the cauldron began to shimmer and I watched it with beady eyes. It mesmerized me, the scintillating liquid, and made me feel even sleepier than before. It reminded me of the sky at sunset, the murky colors that mixed together and painted themselves around the dying rays of sunlight. Even the smell made me think of crisp autumn air.

A loud thunk awoke me. Blurry-eyed, I stared around and noticed the now forest-green liquid dripping out of the over-turned cauldron. How long had I been asleep for? I pulled out two vials and scraped out enough of the potion for Fred and George. The final line of the instructions had mentioned that the potion would turn a shale grey color. I stared at the thick, green liquid with observant eyes. Eh, close enough. I looked at my watch again and realized that it was now 7am. Fred and George would be going down at 7:30 to drop their names in. I waved my wand and dried up the rest of the over-turned potion.

One quick shower later, I was pounding down the stairs. Thankfully, I was the first one there with two minutes to spare. The twins appeared at the foot of the stairs with big grins.

"Here she is!"

"We knew we could count on you!"

I tried to smile as confidently as I could and held out the two vials towards them. "I just finished it."

Fred gawked at me. "You stayed up all night making this?"

I shrugged, embarrassed. Yeah, I get embarrassed sometimes, so what? Don't tell me you wouldn't become tongue-tied in front of Mr. Gorgey? And when I say Gorgey I mean Fred.

"It's not a big deal. It was fun." I tried to wave away their astonishment.

George and Fred looked at each other and nodded at something unsaid. "We owe you little mouse. Come on downstairs and watch our moment of glory!" They joked. Fred took me by my left arm and I thought I would die of surprise and elation.

The great hall was sparsely dotted with students waiting for breakfast to start. The twins said they wanted to make a grand entrance before they dropped in their names, so they allowed me to go inside first. I found a seat near a very pretty blond girl that I had never met before.

"'allo," she said in a light French accent. "My name eis Claire."

She smiled at me with the fullest set of white teeth I'd ever seen. "Hi Claire, I'm Mia." For those of you who forget people's names as soon as the person says it, remember this tip: Say their name over and over in the conversation so you'll remember it. Trust me, it works. I'm not saying I do it all the time, but I try to.

"Nice to meet you Mia. Do you know when food will be ready?"

"At eight."

With another stunning smile that almost blinded me, she said, "Thank you."

Okay, so I generally don't judge people based on their looks, but this girl was just drop-dead-gorgeous. I didn't like her. I tried to copy her beaming smile. "You're welcome, Claire."

"You 'ave a nice smile," she noted.

Okay, maybe she wasn't that bad. "Thanks."

Several hollers distracted me and I looked over to see the twins running in, robes whipping behind them dramatically. "'oo are they?" Claire asked curiously.

"Fred and George."

The twins brought out their vials and claimed in loud voices. "Here we are, just brewed it this morning!"

"We're gonna get our names in there now."

"They are cute," Claire said in a low voice.

Alright, I changed my mind, I didn't like her. Fred looked over at me and winked right before he and George uncorked their vials. The liquid disappeared into their mouths. I crossed my fingers that the potion would work. Everyone watched in anticipation to see if anything changed.

Claire looked over at me. "You like 'im yes?" She asked, looking at Fred.

"No. I just made their potion." I choked over my tongue as soon as those words came out of my mouth. I needed to be careful who I talked to.

A small smile crept on her lips. "I see. I will not tell."

Fred stepped forward, closely followed by George, holding a slip of paper with his name. I held my breath as they put their hands forward into the blue flames and dropped the papers. Everyone cheered while I stood and clapped my hands. An instant later the circle lit up and threw the twins backwards into the crowd.

Two matching grey beards sprouted from their cheeks and traveled down towards their chins. Everyone but me erupted into gay laughter. I felt mortally ashamed. My potion hadn't worked.

"What 'as 'append?" Claire asked, staring at the goofy-looking twins.

"The goblet didn't accept their names," I replied sadly.

She looked at me with a curious glance. "But the potion looked perfect. I don' see why it din't accept them."

"Oh, you like potions?" I asked, not really interested. The twins had just been dragged out of the hall by Professor McGonagall towards the hospital wing. Oh man, they were going to be pissed at me.

"Eet ees my best subject." Another blond girl pranced in followed by many adoring men. "Oh look, eet ees Fleur. Eet was nice meetin you Mia. I hope to see you around."

I waved awkwardly at her and jumped out of my seat then ran towards the hospital wing. I arrived right as Professor McGonagall was leaving.

Fred and George beamed at me as soon as I entered. They weren't mad, really? I almost couldn't believe it.

"Your potion worked!" George said with a grin.

"What?" Had I heard him right? My potion in no way worked. They were young, red-headed men only an hour ago. Now they had long grey beards down to their feet. "I think you're confused."

Fred nodded in agreement with George. "Your potion got across the age line. There must have been some kind of spell on the goblet that stopped us."

"Just like Dumbledore," George grumbled. "He always takes the fun out of cheating."

Madam Pomfrey bustled out and began tending to George's beard. She put her hand into a tin can and brought out a handful of goopy yellow paste. George flinched back when she began rubbing the paste all over his face. "Help! It burns!" He cried like a child.

Rolling his eyes in amusement, Fred turned back to me with a curiously expectant look. "So who was the girl you were talking to earlier? She was really cute."

Oh hell no. Did he really think I was going to tell him who she was? Did he think I was going to reveal the name of my new nemesis? Screw her and her beautiful eyes, slick hair and big breasts. I tried to seem relaxed and nonchalant when I answered. "Just some girl. No one important."

* * *

Why hello lovely readers. I am a day late in updating, I know, but what can you do when you have a test? I hope you had fun with this chapter. :D ~Kukaburry


	4. A Deadly Aroma

My Secret Obsession

By Kukaburry

Chapter 4 - A Deadly Aroma

* * *

I was mildly surprised, okay immensely surprised, to find that Fred and George had saved me a seat at the Gryffindor table the next morning. Fred caught my eye and waved me over as soon as I walked in. "Oi Mia, come over here." This was the first time in five years that someone other than a teacher had called me by my name. Was I dreaming?

Lee Jordan, Alicia Spinnet, Angelina Johnson and the Weasley twins. Was I in or was I in? Robert looked over at me from the Ravenclaw table and gave me a thumbs up. He knew how much I had wanted to be accepted into the Gryffindor lifestyle. With as much style and grace as I could muster, I waltzed over and sat down between Lee and Angelina. To sit with the Weasley twin means you have to have a stand-out personality. I wanted to show them exactly how stand-out I could be. "Hi, thanks." Oh yeah, what a sizzling first line. Watch out Gryffindor, there's a new girl in town. Okay, I think I've been derogatory to myself long enough.

Angelina and Alicia passed glances between each other. "Hey Mia. I don't think we've really met." Lee said while sticking out his hand. I had never noticed before, but Lee had huge hands. I managed to grasp a couple of his fingers and shake it like a five-year-old might. "On the down-low, I heard you helped the twins with their aging potions?"

Those no good, sons-of-a-bitches did it again! Can they keep anything I say a secret? "Yeah, I did." I looked over irritably at Fred and George who were not paying the slightest attention to me.

Lee nodded in deep appreciation. "That's pretty neat. Thank Merlin fifth years know potions, right Fred?" Fred looked up at Lee and flicked his eyes towards me briefly.

He seemed to catch on to my displeasure immediately. "Yeah, she's pretty talented. I have her on hold though, for helping us with our new batches of candies."

He did? That was news to me. His eyes kind of widened at me and I realized that he was trying to help me out. He was letting me know that Lee was trying to talk me into helping him with potions. I tried to put a casual look on my face. "He does. I'm going to be so busy making poisoned chocolates."

Fred chuckled at my little joke. Hurrah! "Let's hope they're not poisoned. It's more like they make you ill for a little bit."

"Oh right," I murmured. I hoped I hadn't made him angry. "Yeah, I was only joking." I made a small, high-pitched laugh and saw Angelina cringe out of the corner of my eye.

"Cool, we can start working on them tomorrow." He was such a good liar.

I almost winked at him and then realized it would be way too conspicuous. So I merely nodded in response. "I look forward to it." Whoops, was that too forward? People say that to casual friends, right?

He grinned and winked at me. Shoot, I should have winked at him first. "Me too." His voice held some kind of promise that sent shivers down my spine.

"Oi Fred, what do you think about this?" Angelina said loudly, stealing away Fred's attention. I smiled and turned away from them, pretending not to care, but inside I was annoyed. Annoyed: I use that word a lot when thinking about Angelina or Alicia, but mostly Angelina. She has that dark, milk-chocolately complexion that I could only dream about. I was burnt cinnamon color from my mother's side. Her hair was stick-straight and thick and black as dark fudge. I had a mixture of caramel, black licorice and molasses for a hair-color. She was delectable. I was completely unappetizing. I have a stunning amount of self-respect, don't I?

I flicked a strand of hair behind my ear and ate in silence until everyone got up to go to Potions. The dungeons were a murky grey color today, even more depressing than usual. I noticed several students enter the class that I had never seen before. I guessed they were the Beaxbeautons and Durmstrang students.

Snape billowed in a moment later, looking sour and sulky as usual. I always wondered why he was such a angry person. "Today we are splitting into groups and creating a sleeping potion. You will have the full hour to complete this project and once you are done, you will test your potions on the groups across from you. Please begin now." He waved his wand and our partners and potion instructions were placed on the board.

My heart leaped when I saw my name right next to Fred's. I tried not to act too surprised or smug when he looked over at me and smiled. I hopped over to his table and began measuring out ingredients. "'Allo, 'ow are you, Mia?"

I looked up to find Claire beaming at me. "Oh, hi again. I didn't know you were in my class."

"Yes, we are taking up our classes 'ere. Madam would keel us eef we didn' feenesh our classes." Of course she would. I guess it made sense that they would continue their studies while here at the school, I just had never thought about it.

"Okay, well, good luck." I murmured while eyeing Fred who was making his way over to me.

"I promise not to tell this boy you like heem. I can keep a secret," she said with a curious smile. Honestly, could she say that any louder? I don't think the classes on the top floor heard her. I felt a hot blush begin to spread across my cheeks.

I kept my mouth tight and forced a smile. "Can we keep it between ourselves?" She gave me what I can only describe as a conspiratorial look and nodded.

"Hey miss mouse. Lucky us working together."

"More like lucky you," I teased brazenly and he cracked a secret grin just for me. "At least this is something we've done before. Maybe Snape's in a good mood today."

"You're talkative today," he noted. I could see in his eyes that he was pleasantly surprised by that.

I eye him quickly. "Is it a bad thing?"

"No," he replied slowly. "It's a nice change. You have a nice voice. I just wonder why you don't use it more often."

I shrugged mysteriously and left his unasked question unanswered and instead brought out my collapsible silver cauldron to look at the ingredients studiously. I have to keep up the impression that I'm a potions genius. "Alright can you get the slate dust, unicorn hair, ginger roots and tail of newt? I have everything else we need in my samples."

"Yes, Ms. Bossy."

I rolled my eyes as he jogged away and returned my attention to the cauldron. "Boys are so disgusting, aren't they?" Was someone talking to me? A girl with nearly violet eyes and dirty blonde hair stared calmly at me. "That boy, that ginger, he is bothering you is he not?" I stare, aghast at her brash manners, but I find I cannot come up with a reply. "I have no respect for men who treat women that way," she continued, "I can take care of him if you like." Her voice held some kind of promise that made me shudder.

"He wasn't saying anything mean to me," I replied quickly, catching Clarie's eye in panic.

"Eegnore my friend miss Mia. She ees merely joking, no?" Claire's calm voice seemed to spread reason into the violet-eyed girl's head.

"Yes, yes. I make a bad joke. I always take them too far, my Claire always reminds me." She cast a glance past Claire and swallowed hard. I followed her line-of-sight and noticed a burly guy from Durmstrang talking to a pretty Slytherin girl. "I have nothing against boys."

Claire caught my eye again and I giggled silently when she shook her head in mock exasperation. "Okay," I reply cautiously, making a mental note to tell Fred that he needs to stay quiet in front of little miss crazypants.

Fred, arms completely overflowing with items, came trotting over. "Back. Did you miss me?"

"Not really," I say in a bored tone. "I was having a nice chat with..." I look up, realizing I hadn't asked crazypants her name.

"Sanya," Claire answers with a smile. "And I'm Claire," she said, extending a petite hand towards Fred.

Taking her hand gently, he squeezed it and smiled brightly. "Nice to meet you. You two will make class much more interesting. It's too bad you can't stay here permanently."

Sighing inwardly, I tried to ignore his flirting. "Fred, can we start now?" I said, hoping my voice didn't give away my annoyance.

"Tsk, like I said, bossy." He smiled across the table one more time then sat down to me chop up the ingredients for the potion.

Half an hour passed in the blink of an eye. I was so caught up in talking with Fred that I barely notice how the potion was turning out. Snape shouted across the class that we only have twenty more minutes to complete our potions or else we receive a failing grade and detention. I look up hastily and check on how the potion seems to look. To my surprise, it had the exact black and silver color and slightly chalky consistency that it was supposed to have. I really amazed myself sometimes. "Well it looks like we're almost done," I said enthusiastically to Fred. "We just need to simmer it for ten minutes until it's a midnight blue."

I glanced cockily at Claire's potion and noticed that it was a strange lavender color and it seems to be eating away at the bottom of the cauldron. Yes, I know, it's a bitch move to feel superior to someone who really didn't mean to be a threat, but I couldn't help but gloat inwardly at my superior skills in potions.

Claire seemed to notice my internal gloating because she looked up at my potion and gave a frustrated sigh. "What deed you do to geet that potion? Ours won' turn black." Quicker than a Firebolt, Fred hopped around the table and looked at Claire's potion. I ground my teeth in anger and continued to stir the graying potion.

"Hey can you show me how to fix this?" A short Ravenclaw girl to my left asked me, pointing to her overflowing cauldron.

Of course I couldn't say no to the girl without seeming like a complete bitch, so I placed my spoon in the sink and took a look at their potion. They explained to me what they had done so far and I noticed that they had put in the ginger roots too early. "You should add a little water to it and stir it for five minutes before placing one more ginger root in. It should look fine after that."

The Ravenclaw girl smiled brightly and did exactly as I instructed. To my astonishment the potion began to bubble and simmer immediately into a deep black and silver color. At that moment Snape called time and I hurry back to the table to check on the potion without a backwards glance, thanking Merlin's furry shorts that the potion was now a deep, rich, midnight blue.

"Everyone, bottle enough for one person to drink and pass it to the person opposite of you." Fred bottled a scoop of the potion and passed it over to Sanya who exchanged it for the slightly pale blue bottle in her hand. A mischievous glint in the corner of her eye made me concerned for Fred.

I took it forcefully from his hand and smiled. "I love near-death experiences. Let me drink it." All around me people were uncorking their neighbor's potions and drinking them down with varying degrees of disgust. The cork popped off silently and I took a quick sniff to try and detect any poisons lurking in the potion. A hint of raspberries bubbled up from the concoction and I fluttered my eyes, confused by the strange smell. There hadn't been raspberries in the list of ingredients. Not wanting to seem like a pansy, I tilted my head back and drained the bottle in one coughing gulp. The potion was thick and creamy like a milkshake and it slipped quickly down my throat. An overwhelming exhaustion caused me to tumble instantly into complete nothingness.

I awoke some time later and found myself sitting upright in my chair with Fred's hand pushing me forward. A cacophonous din registered moments after I opened my eyes. "What the bleeding hell is that racket?" I grumbled.

Fred looked down at me, almost surprised to see that I was awake. I knew something was wrong as soon as I studied his face: he was blanched and sweaty and I could feel the quickened pulse in his hand against my back. His voice shook slightly when he opened his mouth. "It's the Durmstrang guy at the table next to us; he's bleeding from the eyes."

* * *

So I have received many complaints about the last chapter saying Mia was too 'jealous' of Claire. I would like to take this moment to clarify that Mia was not really that jealous of Claire. She is simply over-dramatic in her inner-monologue, and I hope I have portrayed her as thus in the past four chapters.

I also apologize for taking so damn long to write this chapter. I took a creative writing class last year and my teacher pretty much destroyed everything I wrote. Obviously that did not help with my writing mentality so I simply took a break and reflected on why I enjoy writing.


	5. Cauldron Boils

My Secret Obsession

By Kukaburry

Chapter 5 – Cauldron Boils

* * *

"What?" I asked dumbly. There had to be something in my ear, there was no way he just said someone was bleeding from the eyes. He turned my shoulder and nodded at the floor behind me. Convulsing on the floor, the Durmstrang's boy indeed had blood running from the corners of his eyes. I watched as Snape came rushing over with a bottle of a thick, blood-red liquid in hand, screaming at the students to get out of his way.

I stood in complete shock as Snape jerked the boy's mouth open and poured the liquid in forcefully. The boy shook and spluttered, then lay still on the cold stone floors. "Everyone stay put and leave your potions untouched while I take this boy to the hospital wing." He snarled with a cruel sneer on lips. "Anyone caught leaving this room will have detention for the rest of the year."

Threat or no threat, several people seemed stupid enough to take Snape at his word and sneaked out to spread the story to their friends. "Idiots," Fred mimicked my thoughts. People began crowding around the small Ravenclaw girl and her partner, asking them what had happened to their potion. Of course I ducked the fuck out of there, avoiding being called into question. It figures that the one time I give a shit about Potions, I accidentally poison someone.

Several minutes later Snape strode back in, hair even greasier than usual. He stopped next to the Ravenclaw's desk and pointed at her cauldron. "What did you do?"

"N-nothing, professor. It's just a sleeping potion."

Snape's lip curled nastily. "Did anyone else touch your potion?"

The girl's eyes flickered towards me and my spine became ice. "She did," she pointed a shaky finger at me. "She helped us with it."

Snape turned his beady, mean eyes on me. "You girl, come here." I felt everyone in the class turn a wary eye on me. This was seriously unfair. I didn't do anything! If I created a poison, it was by complete dumb luck. "Did you do something to this potion?"

"N-n-no I didn't," I sputtered hastily. "It's a sleeping potion, like she said." I said it louder than I should have.

"Would you care to test it yourself then?" He sneered at me, as though testing to see if I was some kind of mad woman. What a prick.

I grimaced and pulled a spoonful out of the cauldron and popped it into my mouth. Fred stared at me in awe from behind Snape's billowing robes. Internally I crossed my fingers, hoping that this potion was indeed meant to make me fall asleep.

The drowsiness hit me slower than the last potion, and I sank slowly to my knees. Several minutes later I opened my eyes and watched as the entire class stared at me with baited breath. "I feel fine." A dozen people in the class seemed disappointed that I was not gravely ill and the rest seemed uninterested altogether. Fred and Claire seemed worried about me, which I took a little solice in. Snape stood up and proceeded to look at each person's cauldron to check for inconsistencies.

"I'm not going to burst into flames you know," I said irritably as I sat down next to Fred.

"I can't believe you just did that!" Fred whispered. "You were completely fearless."

Was I? All I remember was hating being accused of attempted poisoning. If Fred saw it as bravery, who was I to tell him otherwise? "I just wanted to show Snape that I wasn't afraid of him."

Finally deciding that none of the potions held any sort of poisons in them, Snape grudgingly dismissed the class and warned everyone to keep a lookout for anyone acting suspicious. "We don't need a war to break out between us and Durmstrang because someone was careless with their potion. Everyone get out now."

Not needing to be told twice, I jerked my bag over my shoulder and hurried out the door. I heard soft footsteps shadowing me so I turned to find Fred dogging me. "Hey," he trailed off awkwardly.

"Are you following me for a reason?" I teased.

"Well, I was just, you know, wondering if you might know what caused that guy to bleed from the eyes?"

For a whole minute I just stared at him while his face became redder and redder, then I sighed loud and hard. "How'd you know?" I know what you're thinking dear reader, why the hell did I just say that? I'm a pathological liar I guess, there's really no other explanation.

"So you did do it?" His eyes were now wide with amazement.

"I did, it was an accident obviously. I meant to test the potion on myself, but somehow it got mixed up with the other girl's vial. I thought it would make a good joke potion." Sometimes I amaze myself, the stories I can make up on the spot.

Fred nodded wisely. "I figured as much. I was thinking the same thing you know, about the bleeding from the eyes. Obviously we want it to be as harmless as possible, but it'd make a wicked Halloween trick."

I smiled conspiratorially. "Exactly. That's what I was thinking."

"We're going to have some great potions from you, I can tell. Wait until I tell George. He's going to be thrilled that you're helping us."

"Great! I can't wait. I think I'm going to go check on that kid in the hospital wing, just to see if he's alright." Fred nodded to me as we parted ways at the next intersection. I put my investigator's cap on and headed towards the hospital wing. There had to be a reason why he began bleeding from the eyes, and I had to figure out what it was before my meeting with Fred and George!

I hurried down the hall towards the hospital wing, trying to avoid running into people in case Snape still had it in his head that I was responsible. I rounded the corner quickly and nearly ate a mouthful of shiny blond hair. "Claire?"

Her startled doe eyes caught me off-guard for a moment. "Oh, 'ello Mia. I am lost."

"Oh, well I'm on my way to the hospital wing to check on that guy from potions. Where were you heading?"

She gave me a small, sad smile. "'ow nice of yoo. I would like to join yoo."

"Oh, okay. Maybe you can help me, actually. I'm trying to figure out what happened to him."

"Why do yoo wan' to do that?"

"Oh, nothing serious. I just want to use whatever potion it was for Fred and George. I kind of told them I knew how to do it, but..."

"You don'?" She finished for me.

I looked at the ground, ashamed. "No, I guess I shouldn't have lied. I wanted to prove I was good enough to help them." Why was I saying all of this to someone I didn't even know?

"Mehbee 'ee remem'ers sometheeng?"

I sighed and relaxed. "That's what I'm hoping. You don't have to come if you don't want to."

"Non, non, I wan' to 'elp. Yoo look like yoo need 'elp."

We entered the hospital wing and found it empty aside from the Durmstrang boy. "Vot is it?" He asked, looking up at us from his bed. "I vant to leaf now."

He looked completely fine, a bit white and slightly sweaty, but not dead. It was hard for me to believe that just thirty minutes ago he was bleeding to death. "Hi, sorry about bothering you. I'm here, well we're here to ask you what happened."

"I haf already said zat I don't know. I fell ofer and I s'ought I vas dying." He made angry, confused motions with his hands that assured me he really didn't know what happened. "Vat I vant is to sleep. Leaf me alone."

I tried a different approach, trying to avoid his bristling annoyance. "Do you remember eating anything weird before class?"

Claire and I looked at him curiously, wondering if he remembered even that far back. "I vas eating cookies and butterbeer."

These things seemed like innocent treats. "Did someone give them to you?" I stared at him intently, hoping to see some kind of recognition in his face. His eyes opened wide and he looked past me and squinted his eyes.

A look of clarity crossed his features and he opened his mouth, but closed it immediately and shut his eyes momentarily. "No. Sorry I can't help."

"Are you sure?"

His glare could have melted the skin from my bones. "Yes. Leaf me now."

I whipped around angrily and walked over to Claire. "He won't say anything," I muttered darkly. Why didn't he want to say anything? Honestly, it's not like I would get him in trouble if he was doing something illegal.

"Maybe I could talk to eem?" I studied her flawless features and sighed inwardly. She was right, he might talk to someone much prettier than me.

"Sure, go ahead." I nodded my head back grudgingly and stalked out of the hospital wing, not wanting to see her feminine whiles are work. I nearly rammed head-first into Michelle as I rounded the corner. "Oof, sorry. What are you doing here?"

She scowled and stared at me with her endlessly dark eyes. I noticed one of her eyes was a dark blue while the other was nearly black. "Nothing," she hissed through her teeth. "Forget you saw me here or else."

"Fine," I snapped back irritably. I know I was being too sensitive, but I had self-esteem issues, okay? It's not Claire's fault she's beautiful and the fact that most men are visually driven. It's not like she had been mean to me, and she was offering to help me even. By the time I got back to the common room I felt significantly calmer and more relaxed. I had faith in Claire to get some kind of clue that could lead me to the potion I needed to impress Fred.

I began walking up the stairs to my room when Fred hooked a long arm around my neck and pulled me towards the back couch where George and Lee sat expectantly. As you can imagine I became quite uncomfortable, even though I was pleasantly pressed up against Fred's left side. "Guys, here is our ticket to the next big joke candy."

I turned my, hopefully, innocent eyes up at Fred. "Who me?"

His chuckle reverberated through my arm and fluttered my chest. "Yes you, squeaky. We need you to show us how to make that potion."

At that moment only one thought crossed my mind: 'Shit'.

* * *

Thanks for the encouragement my dear readers. It was frustrating because I took the class for fun unlike the other 95% who were required to take it... and yet I ended up with a B. I didn't really know how to deal with it. Her favorite word for me was 'cliche'. Ah well, I'm pretty much over it at this point so no worries.

Btw, if anyone here is addicted to caffeine like I used to be, you should try out a two-month stint of being caffeine-free. I seriously have no idea how I lived in my caffeine-coma life before. Not to mention I've lost about 35lbs to-date... that's always a big bonus too :D.


	6. Blood Lust

My Secret Obsession

By Kukaburry

Chapter 6 - Blood Lust

* * *

Fred grabbed my hand, something I had only imagined a thousand times in my head, but I froze immediately and pulled back in desperation. "Wait now? I have Defense Against the Dark Arts to study for."

"Don't worry, we'll have you back in no time," George said with an easy grin. Somehow I doubted it would take so little time.

I delved for a more desperate excuse. "But I'll miss lunch!" Considering the roundness of my physical make-up, surely they wouldn't let me miss my favorite time of the day.

"We have snacks in the workshop, silly. We won't let you starve." This came from Fred who tugged on my hand again, setting my heart fluttering. Stop rolling your eyes. I'm the one telling the story, not you. When my heart is fluttering because of a very attractive male your opinion doesn't matter.

Panicked, I tried to come up with a third, infallible excuse, but my mind was a complete blank. Taking my silence as acquiescence, Fred dragged me back through the portrait and along a back corridor that I had never seen before. "Where are we going?"

"Our top secret lab. Only the bravest come here." I couldn't help but smile at his dimples crinkling. "Ah, there she is," he said with a grin. Fred ran over to a small cabinet hidden under a mound of junk. "Here's our store of potions. Have at it."

A foul stench of rotten meats assaulted me. "What is that smell?" I gasped, trying to remain calm while my stomach churned violently. Have you ever left a baggie of salted meats lying around for too long? That's the smell I'm talking about. You're lucky if you don't pass out in two seconds after opening that small baggie of hell.

George walked over and picked through the bottles. "Oh, I was wondering where I put that," he laughed, picking up a large purple container with something squishy-sounding inside.

I gulped loudly, eyeing the bottle suspiciously. I swore I saw something inside move. "What is that?"

"An experiment," he replied lazily before walking away. Not towards the trash, I might add.

I felt my eye twitch involuntarily and shook my head clear. I had to try and recall everything I had put together for my potion earlier. What herbs would cause bleeding? What roots caused seizures? A tiny wheel struggled to turn in my brain. Why was I coming up blank all of a sudden? Herbs were something I knew well after spending so much time looking up the aging potion. Quinthorn! That was something sitting on my desk today and I knew it caused blood thinning.

I picked up the blue bottle and shook a couple of brittle leaves into the dry cauldron. Fred and George began muttering between themselves behind me and I wondered if they were talking about me. I know, paranoid, right? Well let me ask you a question: Why do people whisper behind your back if it's not about you?

I concentrated my efforts on finding all spices, herbs, roots and juices that I could think of to make my blood cookies. Not an appetizing name, but it gets the idea across. Would you feed it to a friend as a Halloween prank? I thought so. Slowly my potion began taking on a soft green hue and smelled of black licorice. It reminded me of the time my mom had me help her make candy apples when I was seven and I accidentally set half of the kitchen on fire. Good times.

"How's it going?" A large hand appeared on my right shoulder and Fred's head popped up next to mine. "Smells promising." He took a look, drawn-out inhale and grinned. "I think we found our next employee," Fred said over his shoulder.

"It's about time," George yelled from across the room, playing with something squishy from the depths of the purple bottle.

Fred reached his hand forward to taste it, but I slapped it away quickly. "I have to bake it first then we can taste it. Honestly, boys know nothing." The puppy dog look Fred gave me almost melted my heart, but my expression remained defiant. "You'll get to try it later." The hand on my shoulder shifted and let go. I knew, according to the quickness of my heartbeat, that I would suffer phantom limb syndrome for the next month or so.

"You're no fun," he wailed and threw himself dramatically on the couch. I rolled my eyes at him in a 'I so don't care how cute you're acting' sort of way.

"Careful Fred, remember what she did to the last guy with her potion." I turned hard and glared at George who threw his hands up. "Yeah, yeah it was an 'accident'."

Frustrated at the way George was treating me, I silently picked up my cauldron and carried it out the door towards the kitchens. I wondered if Fred would ever stand up for me against George. Unlikely, but if it happened my life would be complete. I stopped in front of the bowl of fruit, tickled the peach and watched the door swing open to reveal the large kitchen.

No, there was no way Fred would ever choose me over his brother. I could stalk him all I wanted, but that was no way to get him to notice me. I had been silent around him for the past five years, no wonder he called me squeaky.

"Mistress, welcome back!" The little house elves chirped from hip-level. I shook off several too-helpful elves while making my way to the ovens.

"Thank you, thank you. No I don't need anything." Their hopeful eyes always made me squirm. My parents never had a house elf so I didn't know how to act around them. Eventually they left me alone and I got down to baking my famous, to me and myself, sugar cookies.

With the cookies baked, I shuffled back through the throng of elves and out through the portrait hole. I caught my toe on the panel and nearly fell straight into Fred. "Steady there," he reached out to catch my left shoulder. Fantastic, another phantom limb. "We can't compromise the baked goods."

"We can't," I lamely replied. "I'd have to steal the rest of your potions if that happened."

"It wouldn't be a bother. It's an excuse to get you back in our secret lab," Fred said with an easy grin.

My heart nearly stopped beating when I heard the last sentence. Did he mean what I thought he meant? Did he want me working with him and George again? Even though my face probably looked like a burned tomato, I tried to play it cool. "I guess you could convince me."

His grin broadened and sent my pulse skipping several beats. Note to self: Breathe, damn it. "So how about we try out those cookies together?" I nodded and began opening the small cloth bag containing the cookies.

"Mia, Mia!" I turned to find Claire running full-speed down the hallway towards me, long blond hair fanning out behind her like a cape. "We 'ave to talk."

I looked back at Fred who shrugged and lifted a hand. "I'll see you at dinner. Later Claire."

Claire and I watched Fred waltz down the hall before turning back to each other. "I'm sorry eef I interrupted sometheeng." I noticed her watching me curiously.

"No, you didn't. We were just about to try out our cookies."

Claire looked at the bag in my hand. "Non, ees no good. Yoo must not do that."

"What? Why?" The urgent look on her face made me nervous.

"The boy, the one oo ees een the 'ospital wing." I nodded for her to continue. "Ee 'as told me that ee ate a cookie. Ee said that the girl was someone from my school."

"So someone at your school gave him a bad cookie and made him sick?" Claire's blue eyes lit up as she nodded. "What does that have to do with these cookies?"

"Yoo must not make eeny more cookies. People theenk that you deed eet. Yoo poisoned 'eem."

I nearly fell over in shock. People were saying that it was my fault? "But, why? I took the potion and proved that it wasn't mine." An overwhelming sense of fear and annoyance overtook me suddenly. "It's not fair."

"Non, don' cry. I can 'elp yoo. We are goin' to find 'er and make 'er confess."

"Wait, you would do that?" My prejudices against her melted away quickly leaving a tiny feeling of friendship. I didn't understand why she would help someone that she barely knew.

"Ees the right thing to do, no? You are innocent. We will clear your name."

"Thank you, that's really nice of you."

Someone's feet scuffed against the floor nearby and we both started. "Claire," Michelle looked down at us sitting on the floor in the corridor. "Madam has called us. We have a meeting before dinner." Her haunting eyes sent shivers down my spine. Did that girl ever change her facial expressions?

"Okay, I'll see you guys later," I said breathlessly. "You can sit by me at dinner if you want," I offered last minute over my shoulder. Claire lifted her hand in recognition just as I rounded the corner towards the Great Hall.

Even the idea of boiled potatoes and brisket didn't appeal to me at that moment. I wondered how people would look at me when I entered, if they would stare at me like I was a psycho or just ignore me as usual.

A couple of people turned their head curiously as I entered, but overall most people seemed oblivious to my existence. Perhaps not as many people found out as I had thought. "Mouse," a seventh year boy from Ravenclaw leaned over as passed his table. "Did you really try to kill that Durmstrang kid?" Two girls near him opened their eyes in shock and stared at me.

"No," I mumbled with as much force as I could muster.

"Leave her alone, McTavish," Fred appeared at my side looking downright threatening. "She didn't do anything."

"That's not what I heard. I heard she poisoned him on purpose." A smirk appeared on the Ravenclaw boy's lips. "People have been saying that she's strange for a few years now."

"Shut up," I growled and stomped over to my seat at the Gryffindor table. Fred plopped down beside me, looking at me very strangely.

"I can't believe people have been saying crap about you, even after you tried out that potion yourself."

"It doesn't matter," I sighed. "I'm going to find out who did poison that kid and clear myself."

"So what did Claire want to talk about?" I almost cricked my neck when I swung my head around to inspect my object of obsession for the past five years. Of course, no wonder Fred had been nice to me lately. He wanted me to know more about Claire.

"She.. not much. She wanted to warn me about the rumors."

"That was thoughtful of her," Fred replied with a small smile. "I guess I have to give her more credit from now on." Gloom hung its heavy curtain over my head while the Gryffindor table filled up and food began appearing on the golden plates in front of us. "Oh, so did you want to try the cookies after dinner?"

"Yeah, why not," I reached down to pick up the bag of cookies. "Shit, where'd they go?" I shot out of my seat and looked under the table and down the aisle. "Do you see them?" I asked, now panicked.

"Where did you see it last?"

I closed my eyes and tried to remember where I had put them down. "Crap, I put them down in the hall when I was talking to Claire." I spotted Claire walking over towards us. "Claire, come here. Did you pick up my bag of cookies?"

"Oh, non, I deed not see theem. Maybe Michelle saw theem?" She stood up to find Michelle.

"Relax, what are you so worried about?" Fred said quietly in my ear.

"What if someone ate them?" I could just imagine what horrible things people would say to me if I got yet another person sick.

"I'm sure they'll be fine. We don't have anything that would kill someone. Madam Pomfrey would fix them up really quick." The assurance in Fred's voice calmed me down slowly. "Fred and I had someone eat one of our fever fudges before we tested them and they're fine now."

I breathed a sigh of relief. "That's good."

"I mean, they have no feeling in their left arm, but what does that matter." I gave him my most terrible death glare he smiled back innocently. "Kidding, kidding. It'll be fine, I promise."

Michelle and Claire came flouncing back to the table carrying a familiar-looking bag of cookies. "You're lucky, Michelle was about to eat one!" Claire said with a giggle.

I flew out of my seat and grabbed the bag from Michelle's hand who looked past me, at Fred, with a dark glower. "Thank you for picking those up. I don't want you getting sick."

"Yes, of course not," Michelle replied stonily. I decided to ignore her creepy, foreboding tone and turned to Fred with a giant grin.

"I told you it would be fine," he said while trying not to laugh.

The door to the Great Hall burst open and a tall, muscular Durmstrang boy ran screaming down the central aisle with tears streaking his dark face. "He is dead! My brother, he is dead!" Complete silence took over the hall as they stared in shock at the weeping boy. Two seconds later he began convulsing and fell to the floor, blood dripping from his eyes.

* * *

I wrote extra just for you, my lovely readers. I beg for mercy, I was abducted by… erm.. banshees. Yeah, that's it. I hope you liked the chapter! I had so much fun with this one.


	7. Midnight Whispers

My Secret Obsession

By Kukaburry

Chapter 7 - Midnight Whispers

* * *

Chaos erupted as teachers came swarming from the front table to take care of the boy hemorrhaging on the floor. Snape pulled a Beozar stone from his pocket and stuffed it into the boy's mouth, ceasing the shaking immediately.

"What the bloody hell happened to him?" I whispered, watching two teachers carry the boy towards the hospital wing and three more hurried out into the hall to search for the boy's brother.

I heard several girls burst into frantic tears and felt myself shaking fairly violently. I couldn't believe how scared the entire situation had made me. "You look like you need to sit down," Claire said, helping me back to my seat.

All I could think about at that moment was how familiar this entire situation looked. The boy from the morning also bled from the eyes and convulsed on the floor. "Mia," I heard Fred's voice start cautiously. "How many cookies did you make?"

I tried to wrack my brain and remember how many cookies I had put in the bag: ten. I had made ten cookies. I frantically opened the bag and counted how many cookies were in there: eight. "Michelle what happened to the other cookies?" My voice cracked at the end of the sentence.

"What other cookies?" She looked at me like I was speaking German. Nein sprechen sie Deutsch.

Claire held up her finger at me. "Michelle, deed you drop the cookies?"

Michelle looked at the floor and immediately I knew some mishap had occurred. "I dropped them, yes. I picked them up. No cookies were missing."

I stared at her in disbelief. The idiot dropped them? "How do you know no cookies fell, did you count them?"

She continued to stare at her shoes. I looked down and realized she wasn't wearing any shoes. I shivered at the thought of her bare feet touching the dirty floor. "No."

"No? No?" I asked a bit louder than necessary.

"Mia, chill out," Fred pulled on my arm, reminding me that I was still standing in the middle of the great hall with several dozen people still milling about.

I inhaled a couple of times and relaxed. "I'm sorry. What if those cookies killed that guy?" I surprised myself by mentioning the idea. "I.. oh my.. I killed a guy." I felt the hyperventilation coming on. "I did. Merlin help me, I killed someone."

"Mia, what's wrong with you?" George walked over and saw me inhaling and exhaling at impossible speeds. "Fred, what happened?"

"Mia's cookies 'ave keeled a boy," Claire offered helpfully. I began crying then, unable to handle all of the emotions coursing through me.

"Let's get her out of here," I heard Fred say through my sobs. Someone lifted me up gently and guided me back to the Gryffindor dorm. "Shh, calm down, you're fine," Fred's voice tried to soothe me. We entered the common room and I was sat down on one of the couches. "Mia, look at me."

Bleary-eyed, I wiped a couple of tears away and looked up. "How am I fine? I.. I kill-" Fred's hand covered my mouth. I felt his arms wrap around me in a relaxing hug.

"Don't say that, you don't know for sure."

"But what if I did?" I breathed into his chest.

Fred pulled away and looked me over. "Then I'm never letting you make cookies again."

I snorted and I felt something chunky and wet exit my nostril. Fuckity fuck fuck. Really nose, you had to be all gross at a time like this? With Fred HOLDING ME IN HIS ARMS? "Shit, I'm sorry."

Conflicting emotions ran across Fred's face as he stared down at his soiled robes. "That's the world's biggest bogey right there," he finally managed to say. Of course. My humiliation was complete. My emotions must have been etched on my face because he shook his head and sighed. "Really Mia, you freak out too easily. Bogeys are bogeys. I'm not scared of them."

He scooted back and pulled his robes over his head, giving me a good flash of bare skin I should add. "Sorry, I'm just not sure what to do." I looked at the baggie of cookies still clutched in my hands. While Fred and George were distracted, I quickly pulled a cookie out and stuffed it in my mouth. I had to know if I was responsible. I chewed as quickly as I could and swallowed it, choking on a couple of pieces as it made its way down my throat.

George looked over at me and squinted his eyes. "What are you eating?"

"Nothing," I mumbled, standing up to head to my room.

"Fred, I think she ate one of those cookies!" Both twins jumped up and grabbed my arms then dragged me up to their empty dorm room. "Mouse, did you eat one?"

"I.. um.. no. No I didn't eat one," I replied haltingly. I felt a flush of heat rising to my face and my heartbeat began racing faster than I had ever felt before. A pounding in my head began at the back of my head, almost like a little man with a hammer was burrowing his way out.

Fred bent down in front of me and stared directly into my eyes. "Are you lying?" He said it so earnestly that I almost forgot I had eaten a possibly deadly snack. "Your face is turning really red and your eyes look bloods...".

I had suddenly gone deaf. I felt myself say something, but I couldn't figure out what. A white mist overtook my vision and I felt my limbs become numb. I looked down and saw that my torso had begun sinking into the ground like a melting marshmallow placed on a hot burner. I yelled for help, but I just sank further and further until it was just my neck sitting on top of a soupy mess.

"Mia, wake up." My eyes snapped open. Disoriented, I looked around, trying to remember where I was. "Crikey you scared the crap out of us." I looked up and found Fred and George hovering over me. Why was I laying on the ground? Wait, whose hands were touching my waist?

"What happened?" I croaked.

"You sort of went wobbly and passed out. Then you started yelling about being turned into jello."

I felt my entire body flush in embarrassment. I peeked at Fred through my fringe and noticed that his cheek was swollen. "What happened?" I asked, touching the side of his face.

He grimaced slightly when my hand touched the wound. "You sort of head butted me when you passed out. Erm, I think you might've hurt your nose."

I took my hand away from Fred and felt my own face. A large, swollen mass touched my finger and flinched in pain. "Yeah, it's pretty bad," George sympathized with my expression. "We've got a couple of potions you can take to bring the swelling down." Slow, throbbing pain began replacing the feeling of utter nothingness. George's hand patted me consolingly on the shoulder. "At least we know your cookies are okay."

"Yeah, I would say these are actually successful. They don't do exactly what we wanted," Fred said with a glance at me, "but imagining you're turning into jello? We never even thought of that!"

"That's pretty brilliant."

What I wouldn't give to hear those words again. I was in such a delusional state that I couldn't even focus on how they were praising me. "I feel weird. I think I need to go to sleep."

Fred and George passed a look and nodded. "We can't let you sleep by yourself tonight. Make sure you're actually okay."

I groggily nodded, not caring where I slept as long as I had someplace to lie down quickly. It must have been the Jasmine leaves. Those little bitches can knock a grown person out for hours. Note to self: Pay more attention to which herbs go into the potion. "Don't tell anyone about this."

I think I passed out again because when I woke up several hours later it was completely dark. A couple of soft pillows propped my head up and I was tucked into several comfortable blankets. There was no way I was in my own dorm room, in my own bed, but I didn't quite care enough to get out of bed and figure out whose bed I was in. I stretched out, shoved a pillow under my legs and fell straight back to sleep.

Drapes were pulled back roughly and I jolted straight up in the bed. "Woah, maybe we should call you rabbit instead," George said with a playful grin.

I rubbed sleep out of my eyes quickly and looked around. "Sorry I took your bed."

"Not my bed luv, it's Freddie's." George nodded to Fred at his side.

"Oh, where'd you guys sleep then?"

George grabbed Fred fondly around the shoulders. "We cuddled in my bed all night, didn't we?"

"That's right pumpkin, you're the best spoonee I've ever had."

I blushed thoroughly at the idea of Fred spooning anyone. "Oh, we're embarrassing mouse. We can't tell her that we were completely naked too." Repressing the need to squeal at the images, I pulled a pillow over my head to block out all sound. "I think we just figured out Mouse's secret. She's a virgin."

"What?" I threw the pillow off and stared up in shock. "How would you know that?"

George tapped me on the forehead. "You're blushing too much. No virgin would get that embarrassed over guys being naked."

Not knowing how to respond, I opted for the awkward way out; I silently dragged myself out of bed and exited the twin's dorm room. I couldn't believe it. I spent the entire night in Fred's bed, something I had thought about over and over while I snuggled my pillow at night. Granted, Fred was not in the bed with me, but it was still closer than I had ever gotten to him before. "I'm such an idiot," I growled angrily at myself.

What intelligent girl gets the perfect chance to sleep with her obsession of five years and doesn't try to get him to sleep with her? I could have made so many excuses so that Fred felt obligated to sleep by my side, but I passed out instead. A little voice in my head reminded me that George might have offered to stay by my side, but I decided to remain angry at myself instead of giving into my intelligent side.

I showered and dressed at lightning speed, having little time left to grab breakfast before class. When I got downstairs, I was almost sad to see that neither Fred nor George were waiting for me. Last night was a fluke and the twins probably felt obligated to watch over me because they had let me use their lair of doom to make my poison cookies.

It hit me suddenly, if my cookies hadn't poisoned those Durmstrang boys, then what did? Was someone pulling a prank on me? There had to be some kind of explanation for why three boys in one day all became ill, and it happened to coincide with me making potions. It was just a coincidence. It had to be.

When I entered the Great Hall, I knew immediately that something was going on. Barely anyone was talking and all of the Durmstrang boys wore solid black cloaks. Professor McGonagall spotted me walking towards the Gryffindor table and met me before I sat down. "Ms. Reynolds, after you finish breakfast, please report to my office. You will be excused from your morning classes."

Once McGonagall had walked away, I sat down and refused to look anyone in the eye. "What did she say?" Fred asked me in a whisper.

"Nothing," I whispered back, trying to hold my emotions back. If McGonagall was going to try and accuse me of something, there is no way I was going to get the twins involved too. Fred deserved Hogwarts so much more than I did.

"Mia," a familiar French accent rang in my ear. "Mia, I'm so sorry." I was surprised to find Claire standing there with tears running down her face. "Eet ees my fault. I told theem about your cookies."

"Wait, you told who?"

"Madam Maxine. She wanted to leave the school. I told her eet was an accident. Your cookies were an accident." She sniffed and wiped her nose on her perfect, blue tunic. "Now everyone knows. Eet ees my fault. I'm sorry."

It took me a second to process everything she had said. All of the teachers now knew that I had made cookies and they thought I was the one who had poisoned the boys. When I looked past Claire's tear-streaked face, I saw hundreds of glowering faces staring back at me. No, when Claire said 'everyone knew', she meant the entire school now thought I was a murderer.

Fuck.

* * *

Another chapter gone in the wind. I noticed that I have a lot of new readers of this story. Not to toot my own horn….too loudly… but if you enjoy this story, I have a couple of other Fred/George stories you might enjoy. I also have some tasty Draco FFs that will make your skin tingle. I hope you're enjoying this rather random story so far! Tata my lovelies ~ Kukaburry


	8. House Arrest

My Secret Obsession

By Kukaburry

Chapter 8 – House Arrest

* * *

"She didn't do it!" Both Fred and George pleaded with Professor McGonagall for me. "We saw her eat one of the cookies and nothing happened to her."

"Well I wouldn't say nothing... she kind of passed out for a little while and thought she was bleeding from the eyes." Professor McGonagall pressed her lips together so tight that her lips became white.

"But she was fine afterwards."

"She didn't die."

"Obviously," she said with a cool gaze towards me. I felt my feet freeze on the spot. "Mia I'll need to talk to you in private."

Fred grabbed my upper arm and tugged me towards him. "Professor you can't expel her. She's innocent."

"Mr. Weasley, I'm not sure where you got the impression that I was planning on expelling her from, but I can assure you that nothing will be done until we find out more information." She opened her office door and gestured for me to come inside. Considering my upper torso was pressed firmly against Fred Weasley's chest I was inclined to tell her 'no', but my more reasonable side thought that this was not the wisest decision I could make. Some sacrifices had to made if I wanted to stay at Hogwarts.

"Don't worry about me. I didn't do anything, remember?" George's worried look made my stomach plummet slightly. It wasn't like the Weasley twins to be anxious about anything, unless something truly terrible might happen. "The mouse will live to see another day," I said to them just before the door closed between us.

Professor McGonagall sat down behind her desk which was piled a meter high with books about furniture transfiguration. I studied each book out of distraction noticing that she put the thicker, wider books in the middle of the pile making it quite top-heavy and likely to topple over. "Now Miss Longbourne, why don't you tell me what happened? I'm inclined to believe that you had nothing to do with this situation, so don't leave out any important details."

Taking in a shaky breath, I related everything I could remember to Professor McGonagall. She listened patiently and nodded her head at all the right moments. I felt my burden lighten momentarily as everything spilled out.

"I see, so it seems that twice someone has tried to frame you for an attack."

I looked up, startled at the idea. "Frame me?" Was that what was going on? Was someone trying to frame me for the attacks against the couple of boys? "I didn't think about that." I searched my mind frantically for a common thread between the two attacks besides me, but nothing came to my mind. "I can't think of who would do that."

Professor McGonagall regarded me sternly over her spectacles. "Well think, girl. This is your reputation, not to mention your life, that we're talking about here."

I felt a chill of dread claw its way up my stomach and settle in my throat. "My.. my life?"

"Did you think this was some kind of prank?" I shook my head fervently. "This is worthy of being sent to Azkaban. Taking the life of another."

"But.. what if it was an accident?" My question came out as a squeak since my throat had decided to clench upon itself.

"Are you admitting that this was your accident?"

"No." My voice was now just a puff of air. I tried swallowing, but my tongue felt like a swollen slug sucking up all my saliva.

A sigh escaped McGonagall's lips. "Miss Longbourne, I'm going to have to put you under house arrest until we can come up with some evidence to prove otherwise." I felt my lips begin to tremble. "This is for your safety more than anything. I don't believe you did anything, accidentally or otherwise, but I have to satisfy the other teachers somehow."

"But, people will think that I did it."

Her fierce brows softened ever so slightly. "People already think that, Mia."

The full force of the situation hit me like a steel door. Someone was either framing me for murder and attempted murder or I accidentally brewed something strong enough to kill someone. Either way I was very likely screwed.

"As long as you're telling the truth it'll all turn out fine." I looked up hopefully, but saw that even she looked worried about the ultimate outcome. "Here, I'll see you back to the common room. We'll have house elves bring you food while everyone is in the great hall."

She took me by the arm and led me back to the dorms like a prison guard leading an inmate to their cell. I felt eyes burning holes in me from every direction as we passed clusters of students. I tried to shrink within the folds of my robes, but it did nothing to block out the whispers of those around me. I heard a couple "The quiet ones are always crazy" and fair few "Do you think she killed them because they turned her down?". Never before had I felt such a pure form of humiliation.

A wave of shouting washed over us the moment the portrait hole opened. "She didn't do it, man!" Fred's voice resounded in my ears. "What's wrong with you, you've known her for five years."

"We were with her when it happened, she didn't do anything." George growled.

"Then why is Professor McGonagall holding onto her?" A dark-haired boy named Ryan who was my Herbology partner from last year pointed an accusing finger at me.

The entire common room became deathly silent as everyone turned to openly stare at me. Professor McGongall dropped my arm and withdrew her wand protectively. "Nothing has been proven. I expect all of you to treat her like a member of Gryffindor and support her."

A couple of people raised their eyebrows as if to say 'Yeah, that won't be happening', but a majority of the people looked properly ashamed of themselves. For the first time in my life I felt lucky to be in Gyrffindor. I forgot that the true meaning of Gryffindor was 'loyalty', even if I was a bit of an outsider, I was still part of their house.

"If you see anything suspicious, report it to a teacher immediately. We need to catch who is responsible for these terrible crimes." Again a couple of people cast sidelong glances at me, but nearly everyone nodded their heads in understanding. Who knew that I would feel grateful towards my house members in the face of being called a murderer?

McGonagall escorted me to my room and gave me a lecture about staying inside the house. I didn't really need her to tell me about staying inside. The last thing I wanted to do was attract even more attention. "We will enchant the portal so you won't be able to leave. Summon a house elf if you need any help. Luagon is my personal house elf who will come if you summon him."

I could tell she was trying her hardest to make me feel less like a prisoner and I tried to give her a smile, but my face seemed preset on 'horrified'.

"Try your hardest to remember if anyone acted suspicious around you. You're a clever young witch, I'm sure if you jog your memory, you'll think of something." Upon hearing the phrase 'clever young witch', my body automatically began giggling. Young? Yes. Witch? Maybe. Clever? Yeah right, and Basilisks are the most huggable creatures ever. McGonagall frowned at my laughter so I pinched my cheek to stop it. "I'm sorry, I didn't mean it."

A hint of a smile flashed briefly on her lips, so quickly that I more than likely imagined the whole thing. "As long as you stay here you'll be fine." She said once again. "Dinner will be brought up in two hours." She turned and left me to my thoughts.

My poor stomach growled at the thought of food, but I was so preoccupied with everything that I did not feel up to fishing out my stash of chocolate frogs. No seriously, I know you're sitting there right now thinking 'she is totally lying, she is addicted to chocolate frogs'. I legitimately didn't feel like eating chocolate frogs right then. All right fine, I did get some out about ten minutes later because I was dying of hunger, but if I hadn't been so hungry, I definitely wouldn't have gotten them out. Yeah, I know, I'm a sad little person. Moving on.

I sat on my bed for a couple of hours and watched the stars come out, one by one. One girl, Laura, came in before dinner to get dressed. She was usually pretty chatty, but she remained quiet while she put her robes on. "Hey Mia," she began slowly, "you didn't actually do it did you?" I could see the curiosity brimming through her eyes.

Trying to look at calm as possible, I breathed out a sigh. "No, I didn't." I wished upon Merlin's fuzzy underpants that she would believe me.

"Alright, cool. I just wanted to ask you." She gave me a heart-melting grin. "I didn't think you did."

My heart began pounding in my ears. They really were supporting me, weren't they? A house that I always felt out-of-touch with, as if I was looking in on alien beings, was suddenly a group of people that had my back. It touched my heart, my shriveled, sarcastic, pessimistic little heart.

I felt my throat clench, and I watched her begin to exit the dorm. "Thank you!" I managed to choke out. "For believing me."

"Duh." She winked and left. In case you were wondering, yes, I did develop a tiny crush on Laura after that. What sane person wouldn't?

A medium-sized house elf appeared near the fireplace carrying a tray of roasted chicken and boiled potatoes. "This is for you mistress." The little guy squeaked. I began wondering if that is how I sounded when I talked. No sooner did I take the tray then he vanished back to the kitchens.

I sat down and chewed on my roasted chicken while going through scenes from the past week. Every face was a little fuzzy in my head, but I had a general idea of who each of them was. Was there someone there every time something happened? Fred's face popped into my mind and I almost punched myself for thinking of him. Of course it was not Fred; he was the last person in the world to do something like that. Moreover, he was too busy flirting with Claire during potions to have time to poison that Durmstrang kid. My head snapped up. Why had I not thought of it before? Michelle, Claire's friend, was there both times. She had even 'found' my cookies in the hallway. The way she had stared at the Durmstrang boy during class was hard to forget; it looked like she had wanted to cut his hands off. Alarms sounded in my head. She was without a doubt, the culprit.

Leaving my tray of food sitting on my bed, I vaulted over the mattress and hurried downstairs. All right, maybe I didn't vault so much as scramble clumsily like a drunken cat. I spotted the twins immediately, sitting with a group of sixth years. "Fred, George," I gasped like a fish out of water. The circle of people watched me carefully. "I..I need to..talk... with you?" My voice got quieter and quieter before disappearing like a turtle in its shell. Also, remind me to stop using animals for comparison. That was, like, three in a row there. Sorry, carrying on.

Without further prodding, they followed me to a less crowded nook. Collecting my thoughts, I licked my dry lips before revealing what I had just discovered. "What'd you find, little mouse?"

"I think I know who did it."

* * *

Oh man what is going to happen? *Insert overly dramatic music* As always your kind reviews are appreciated, even if it's a simple 'woohoo'. ;) I'm on a roll with updating this week. This is what happens when I get really sick and have to sit at home idly.


	9. The Stalkening

My Secret Obsession

By Kukaburry

Chapter 9 - The Stalkening

* * *

"Who? Who did it?"

"I think it was Michelle," I whispered, then explained to them my suspicions. Their identical expressions of horror helped me relax since it was obvious that they believed me.

"You mean that blonde girl you're friends with?" Fred asked, voice raising a couple of octaves in doubt.

"Who Claire? No, her friend, Michelle. The one with the crazy eyes." I imitated crazy eyes as best I could, but I think I looked more a mix between constipated and drunk.

Fred closed his eyes and pursed his lips as though trying to picture Michelle. "With short blonde hair?" I nodded. "Yeah, I remember her. Why do you think she did it?"

"She threatened to 'take care of you' when you were being mean to me in class."

"What? I've never been mean to you have I?" The genuine confusion in Fred's voice brought a small smile to my lips.

"We did give her the nickname mouse," George offered.

"And you did give me chocolates to change my voice."

"And we stuck her to the couch cushion."

"Twice."

"And we fed her puking pasties last year."

"And.."

Fred looked between George and me and sighed. "Yeah, alright, fine. That wasn't mean though, was it?" His eyes looked straight into me. "It was just a laugh."

"I mean, I got over it." A strange look crossed his face and disappeared quickly.

"So what do you think we should do? Do we talk to McGonagall?"

I shook my head. "No, we need proof."

"Like watch her kill off another bloke?"

"Well, yeah, if you see her murdering someone that will be obvious." My sarcasm sailed right over their heads. "Nevermind, can you guys maybe.. stalk her? She and Claire are going to Madame Puddifoot's tea shop tomorrow night at six. Maybe she'll talk about one of the guys?" To this day, I still do not know why I phrased it that way: 'stalk'. I could have gone with a myriad of words: Follow, investigate, track, I could go on. No, I chose the creepiest word to describe the dirty work they would have to go through. I chose the exact words I used to describe my obsession with Fred. This tiny, insignificant word was my downfall.

George smiled and patted me on the back. "Of course. This coming from the queen of stalking."

People talk about hearts skipping a beat. Mine skipped a full cycle. I stared at George's face, lacking all courage I had built up the previous weeks to look at Fred. "What?" That word sounded pathetic even to me.

"Oh come on, we all know. You stalked Fred for like, five years."

"No.. I.."

"It's alright, don't be embarrassed." George's face brightened with a grin. "We've known for a while now, haven't we Freddy?" He threw a wink towards Fred. "About you being in lurrrve."

I turned my head towards Fred, dreading the look on his face. I was surprised to find that he was not imitating his brother's cheerful grin; he looked almost as embarrassed as I did, which in turn humiliated me more. He felt sorry for me, and honestly why wouldn't he?

"Well.. yeah… kind of. It's not a big deal." His cheeks burned, but mine burned brighter. "George thought he saw you a couple of times and then I noticed that you'd peek at me when you thought I was busy."

"And then sometimes you'd follow us down a hallway that was nowhere near your class." George chirped.

I could go into an explanation of all the thoughts running through my head, but I will save you from three days of reading, by summarizing my horror thusly: I wanted the world to crash into a black hole immediately and kill everyone within seconds. I was definitely mortified beyond all comprehension. Remember that part in chapter two when I told you guys that I was narcissistic in that I thought people were watching what I did all the time? Yeah, apparently I was not narcissistic enough to know that the object of my fascination knew I was watching him. Talk about crushing a girl's heart.

"You know what, forget it. I do not need you making fun of me anymore. I know everyone thinks they can walk all over me because I'm quiet, but I'm tired of it."

"Mouse.. we're sorry."

"My name is not 'Mouse' it's Mia. I'd rather let everyone think I'm some kind of crazed murderer than let you guys go on making fun of me like I don't have feelings." No, I swear I am not making this up. I actually said that. And damn did it feel good. I stormed away from them and sat down next to the fireplace to contemplate my now ruined life. I watched the twins walk downstairs without a backwards glance at me.

Several minutes later, after the rest of Gryffindor had gone downstairs for dinner, Professor McGonagall reappeared with a special guest in tow.

"Claire?"

"Mia I eem so sorry zat thees 'as 'appened to you." She looked genuinely depressed for me. "Wat ees wrong? You 'ave been crying?" The red rings around my eyes definitely gave me away.

"Claire, everything sucks." I broke down and told her what had happened with Fred since it seemed like she already knew. "I thought today couldn't get any worse, but Fred turned out to be the worst person ever. He said he was going to help me figure out who did all of this, and then he turned around and made fun of me for liking him. Why couldn't I like someone else? Someone who isn't a complete jerk?"

She sat down and gave me a one-armed hug around the shoulders, trying to console me. "Ee does not like you? I 'zought ee was your boyfriend?"

"No way. Yeah, as you guessed, I've liked him for five years. The worst part is that I thought we were getting closer recently, and now this happens. I shouldn't have gotten involved with them. Everything would we different."

"Zey will 'elp you find out who did zis non? You think you know, yes?"

I gave her a sidelong glance, trying to decide whether to tell her about my suspicions about her friend, Michelle. Her encouraging smile won me over and I spilled everything I knew. She seemed quite shocked for a moment, her lips parted wide open. Then she admitted to me that she had been thinking the same thing for several days. She said that Michelle had always been angry with boys ever since she found out that two of her ex-boyfriends had been cheating on her.

I was thrilled that she was backing up my suspicions. "Don tell anyone yet. What eef it ees not 'er? I don want her to geet een trouble. I weel 'elp watch 'er. You don need to rely on ze twins." She looked up at me curiously. "Can you geet out of zis tower?"

Her words sent a thrill through me. Escape from the tower? I hadn't even considered it. "Well, I don't know. I might be able to, why?"

"What eef I catch 'er? You should be ze one who confronts 'er." She caught the sparkle of hope in my eye and smiled. "Eef you can, meet us outside of ze tea shop. I will look for you."

All too soon Professor McGonagall came back to collect Claire. I could not help but think that this was like giving inmates twenty minutes of time with friends and family and it only heightened my resolve to get out and find out who really did this to me. I had heard rumors of Harry Potter owning some kind of invisibility cloak so I crept up to the boy's dormitory and searched through his trunk. I knew immediately that I had found the cloak because of its liquid-like texture. I knew that tomorrow during dinner I would have to escape under the cover of Harry's cloak, surrounded by other students going down to dinner. I stuffed the cloak into my robes and hurried back to my dorm room, worried to death that someone would see me carrying a large cloak in my pocket. Luckily, no one had come back yet and the moment I entered the room a rush of breath escaped my lips.

I knew exactly what I needed to do. I needed to be brave. I needed to gather up my courage and become the Gryffindor the Sorting Hat had known I was all along. Tonight I steal a cloak. Tomorrow, I unmask a murderer.

* * *

Hello, hello, hello and all that. I bet you all thought I had gone and forgotten about writing. Well okay, yeah, I kind of did for a while. I'm back! I have new chapters written up for all of my stories so be prepared for a bombardment of writing. Also in one of my stories I am writing the worst person ever… take a guess which one? ;) - Kukaburry


	10. Last Chapter of Dooooom

My Secret Obsession

By Kukaburry

Chapter 10 - The Last Chapter of Doooom

* * *

I'm sorry to report, dear readers… Did I just call you all my dear readers? Remember the first chapter when I called all of you twits? I must have lost my edge. Here, I'm going to try this again. I'm sorry to report, dear pricks.. yes that's much better.. that this is the last chapter you will be reading from me. Fear not my demise for clearly I am writing this long-ass story and therefore am not dead. Although, I guess I could be writing it from the land beyond.. do you think they have some kind of email system or something over there? Probably not, it's probably so last century for them. As much as I love magic, I will never understand why certain things are so much slower than they are in the muggle world. My dad has this thing called a mobile phone and it calls people and sends them messages. The wizarding world has owls and fireplaces. Which one is more convenient? Sorry, did I go off on a tangent again? On with the last chapter you will ever read… of doom. Dun dun dunnnnn.

Shall I bore you with trivial details of my day or just get straight to me breaking out of Hogwarts? Hmmm, I think I will torture you a little bit. So at eight am I woke up, drank some tea, and ate a couple of biscuits… haha just kidding. How boring would that be? Like you need to know that I went wee three times and poo two times. That is just way too much information. The only question you probably have is whether Fred and George came to talk to me. No. No, they did not. I had not seen hide nor hair of them all day long. They were avoiding me, and, I admit, I was avoiding them as well. The pain and embarrassment was still too fresh.

Around six, a herd of Gryffindors began descending to the great hall for dinner. My food had already arrived, but I left it untouched because I was too nervous to eat. I packed several things in my pocket in case I was unsuccessful and needed to escape and go on the lamb: A fresh pack of hazelnut chocolate frogs (Come on, what else would I pack?), my wand, a bag of galleons, and some gloves in case it got cold. I donned the invisibility cloak and descended the stairs, waiting for a lighter pack of people to blend with. People jostled me a little bit, but no one seemed to notice that they had jostled thin air. Luckily, the front door had been left open for the other students from the other schools so I easily slipped out, unnoticed, and made my way to the tea shop.

Walking such a long distance alone gave me plenty of time to think about what Fred and George said to me the night before. I did not understand why George thought it was all so hilarious. At least Fred had the courtesy to act just as embarrassed as I was. It made me wonder if it was some kind of inside joke between the two of them. Did they often sit there and talk about creepy Mia, the stalking mouse? By the time I arrived at the tea shop my annoyance for the two had blown into full-on anger. How dare they treat me that way, after all I had done for them. Were they pretending to be nice to me these past few weeks because they felt sorry for such a big loser? I vowed never to forgive them. My obsession for Fred Weasley had come to an unpleasant and halting end. Good riddance.

I sat down in the grass just outside the back window of the teashop, and took off the invisibility cloak. I was surprised at how warm it kept me considering the fabric weighed nearly nothing. I entertained myself by pretending to know what people's conversations were inside the teashop. I saw two older women chatting by the window closest to me and I imagined they were two old friends who had not seen each other in over a decade, finally catching up at a dingy teashop in Hogsmeade. Another middle-aged couple sat leaning towards each other over the table. The dimples in the woman's cheeks took ten years off. I imagined that they were talking about the success of their five children, and discussing about getting their youngest son a new pet for his first year at Hogwarts. This couple had been together through thick and thin. He had fallen madly in love with her the first time he saw her in Potions class, but he was too shy to tell her. After six long years of pining after her, he finally gathered up the courage and asked her out. She said no at first, but then changed her mind and decided on the first date that she would marry this man.

A lonely tear slipped down my cheek after that inner scenario played out in my head. I brushed it away stubbornly and told myself not to cry. It was not worth it. It was my own fault anyways. I was the one who had been obsessed and never proclaimed my interest. What was I expecting? That one day Fred would open his eyes and see the real me? The real Mia. The one who is narrating this story, not the silent one who never speaks up for herself. Nope, if I wanted him to see the real me I would have to show him. And I never did. That ship had sailed.

I looked up and finally saw Claire and Michelle enter the cafe. Michelle did not look suspicious at all, so clearly Claire had not given any hints about the whole plan. I watched them talk back and forth for nearly twenty minutes. I had never been so bored in my life. I looked around the cafe, hoping that the twins had listened to me and come to the teashop to 'follow' Michelle. I was severely disappointed when they never showed. Swallowing my anger, I stood up and casually slipped inside to an adjoining booth to listen in. I ordered a cup of tea so the shopkeeper would stop giving me angry glares for taking up a 'highly sought after' table. Ten minutes into the conversation, I finally perked up. Claire asked Michelle about her past boyfriends and Michelle described the pain she suffered when both of them cheated on her. I had to hand it to Claire; she asked the perfect questions in a familiar cadence. I needed to learn that trick for the future. If I had a future.

The most interesting question was about the Durmstrang boy. Claire asked Michelle if she had been interested in the boy and Michelle responded with an enthusiastic 'yes'.

"He was supposed to meet me for sweets the night before that accident. I think he went out with a different girl. That lying scum." I almost cried in relief. Michelle practically admitted to being angry with the boy. She could have easily poisoned him.

My stomach gave a small growl of hunger and I remembered my bag of chocolates. I pulled one out and unfolded the tinsel. "Boo!" I jumped nearly a foot in the air and dropped my uneaten chocolate on the floor.

"Merlin's Knickers you scared me Claire."

"Did you 'ere what she said about ze boy?"

"Yes. Just, wow. I cannot believe you got her to admit to it."

"No, not yet. I 'ave to geet 'er to tell me what she deed."

"Alright, alright. I guess I got overly excited. I'll wait to see what she says."

A slow grin spread across Claire's face. "I know eet will be exciting."

I took a large gulp of tea, nerves getting the better of me. I felt all jittery and excited like I was on the first day of school. Somehow, I was going to be all right and have my name cleared. People were going to stop staring at 'Murderous Mia' and go back to calling me mouse. Things were finally looking up….

A light shined in my eyes and I awoke groggy and completely cotton-mouthed.

"Come on, wake up. I don't have all night." The voice sounded familiar, but different.

I looked up, half-lidded at the girl standing above me. "Claire?"

"Ah, she finally awakens. Now we can start the party."

"What? What party?" I looked around and noticed that I was on the dirt floor of a very grimy cave. I saw a couple of spiders scurry for cover from the light emanating from the tip of my wand that was currently in Claire's hand. "Where am I? How did I get here?"

"I told you, you're the special attendee of my very exclusive party. Say hello to the other attendees. I think you'll recognize one of them."

A very battered-looking man sat, head lolling, in the corner. He looked up and I gasped quietly. "Geo-"

"That's right, your very own Fred Weasley. He so kindly accepted my invitation as well." A strange laugh erupted from her, almost unnatural and mechanic. Chills crawled down my spine and shivered through my fingernails. "Haha kindly. I crack myself up."

"What is going on?"

Claire wiped a tear from her eye and sighed. "Oh, nothing special. I thought you might want to be part of this final escapade of mine. Especially after everything you told me last night." What I had told her last night? Was she talking about everything with Fred? "I have a grand proposition for you that I bet you will not turn down. I have here three very special cookies that I baked myself." My heart stuttered to a stop. No. Way. How had I missed the most obvious suspect of all. "Yes, these special cookies are the rave at Hogwarts right now, aren't they Michelle?"

Michelle stood against the far right wall, looking bored. "Yeah."

"She's so enthusiastic isn't she? You've got to love her. Anyways, I have a proposition for you. Michelle has accepted the role as the horrible boy-killer, haven't you?"

"Yeah."

"I know that you've probably figured out by now that I'm the boy-killer, but you have a choice before you. Considering everything this vile piece of shit," she gestured manically towards George," has done to you over the past five years, would you like to be the one who feeds him this delicacy?"

I stared at her, brain churning with this windfall of information. Was this a really sick and twisted dream that my mind had created for me? If so, why would George Weasley be there instead of Fred? In my mind, Claire would have kidnapped the right person.

"I know I should have given you the chance to kill both of the boys, but I left the other one half-dead in a ditch somewhere. He's probably slowly dying as we speak. It's my fault since he only ate part of the cookie and used some stupid candy he had to make himself throw up. I would have called it ingenious if he had been successful." Her look of pleasure sickened me. "At least they'll have each other in the afterlife. That's something they can look forward to."

My face remained impassive. If I had my wits about me I probably would have flinched, but I lucked out in that my muscles clenched in terror. My mind, however, raced into overdrive. I had to escape and find Fred before it was too late.

"So, what have you decided? Since you're sweet and harmless I'll bet that you don't have the guts to go through with it, but let me put it to you this way. You will feel powerful like you've never felt before. I used to be just like you. The first day I met you, I knew we were exactly the same. I was so shy that I puked the first time I talked to a boy." Her pale face clenched at the memory. "The boy just stared and laughed at me. He never laughed again after that. The next boy I talked to also laughed and walked away from me when I asked him out. He never walked again after that. That's when I learned that boys were toxic, and the worst ones had to be weeded out. No one ever guessed that I was the one who did it. Over the years girl after girl has taken the fall for me because I learned a handy servant spell that made people do what I want. So here I am, more powerful than anyone and getting away with it yet again." She seemed to expect me to fawn over her, but I remained rooted to the floor. "Now you're probably wondering where you fit in. I have a soft spot for girls like you. If I find a girl with a special plea I give her the chance to take care of the guy herself. That's the chance I'm giving you now, Mia. The chance to take control and teach him a lesson he'll never forget. You will not get into trouble either way. Michelle already has her confession letter written out. If you decide to go against me, you will have to be a casualty of Michelle's plan. If you decide to go along and feed Fred the biscuit, then you will live the rest of your life knowing that you stood up to him in the end."

I think I only really listened to about half of what she actually said. This may or may not be an accurate transcript of her crazy babble. Trust me, there was a lot of it. I looked over at George who had blanched at Claire's speech. He tried talking through his gag and I glared at him, telling him to shut up and not reveal himself with my mind. I had to come up with a plan.

I think Claire mistook my look for one of anger against George because she laughed in delight. "Ah I see you know a good deal when you see one. Michelle, here is your biscuit. Eat up." I watched, horrified, as Michelle took the biscuit whole into her mouth and barely chewed it before swallowing. Not even ten seconds later she began frothing at the mouth and fell to floor, convulsing, body thrashing violently against the rocks. I cringed a couple of times when her head smashed against a sharp edge of a bolder. The worst part were the screams of anguish that erupted from her. Another two heartbeats and she laid there, motionless. Claire bent down and brushed Michelle's hair out of her face, gingerly, almost motherly. I felt sick to my stomach.

"I bet you are glad you choose the good path, otherwise I would force feed you one of those biscuits like I did the other twin."

A plan still had not formed in my frantic mind. I grappled with a couple of items in my pocket and Claire looked at me suspiciously. "Stop that now. Give me what's in your pocket." I swallowed hard and handed her everything I had. "Candy and money? That's really all you're carrying around? I'm sorry to say this, but that's sad. You, sweetheart, need to lose weight and stop eating this junk. After we're done tonight I'm putting you on a strict diet. Trust me, you'll look amazing in under three months." The fact that she still seemed to think that would still want to be friends with her after she talked me into 'killing my boyfriend' brought the whole situation to an unknown level of crazy. If there was a bar for zero to crazy, Claire would be somewhere near 'Who set that house on fire?'.

She lifted the bag of chocolates to her face to scrutinize. "What are these? Hazelnut Chocolate Frogs?" Distractedly she handed me the biscuit and a wicked smile spread upwards. "How about you and I celebrate this last night by eating these chocolate frogs while Fred dies with his biscuit."

I freaking love chocolate frogs. If I could, I would bathe in chocolate frogs. At that very instant, I knew I never wanted to see another chocolate frog for the rest of my life. "O-ok." I whispered. George's eyes grew wide as he saw me approach with the cookie in my hand. He couldn't possibly think I was going to go through with it, did he?

"Any last words to dear Fred, Mia?" I shook my head slowly and took George's gag off. "Well, then, we will toast to death and chocolate. May his death be long and painful." A horrendous retching sound caused me to jerk around and find an astounding sight. Claire bent over, vomiting extraordinary amounts of bile from her mouth. I ran full-tilt into her and crashed against the cave wall, dazing myself. I grabbed my wand from her clutches and yelled 'Petrifigous Totalus' as loud as I possibly could. It's hard to describe the sight I experienced, but imagine a fountain with a statue spitting water that is frozen, but instead of water, it's a huge torrent of puke. That's essentially what Claire became: A vomit fountain.

"You did it!" George roared in excitement. "You bloody did it Mia, you brilliant girl. Now, get me out of these bloody ropes before crazy comes back." I untied the ropes and helped him to bound and gag Claire. "Why are you still here?" He was suddenly staring at me as if I was the crazy one. "Go freaking find my brother and save his life."

"Why are you sending me?"

"Because you're in love with him and because he'll want you to be the first person he sees when he wakes up." I opened my mouth to tell him to piss off with his stupid stories, but he cut me off. "Don't bother insulting me. I can't help if my brother has fallen out of love with me and in love with you." A million and one questions came to my mind, but George pushed me towards the cave entrance. "Why are you still standing here? Go! He's in the ditch right outside the mail office. You save my brother and I'll take care of this crazy bitch."

* * *

Raise of hands, how many people saw that coming? PS this isn't really the last chapter. Mia was just messing with your minds.


	11. Timing is Everything

My Secret Obsession

By Kukaburry

Chapter 11 – Timing is Everything

* * *

You didn't think I would actually stop there did you? See, that's what I do. I lull you into a false sense of security about life and them BAM I take it all away. Now where did I stop in the last chapter? Oh right, saving Fred's life.

I have never run so hard in my life. As you all know I'm not exactly a star athlete so I was out of breath pretty quickly, but I kept running even if it felt like my lungs were being torn to shreds by tiny icicles. Slamming the door open, I shouted for help from a couple of the people inside, and two men came running with me down the slope where we found Fred, completely pale and nearly lifeless. His breathing was shallow and his face looked nearly 10 shades too pale to be human. "No, Fred, don't you dare leave me." I shook him forcefully while the two men grabbed us and side-long-apparated to right outside the gates of Hogwarts. We rushed him to the Hospital Wing where I was taken 'into custody' by Professor McGonagall.

No matter how many times I repeated the story she continued to stare gravely at me. "What I need, Miss Longbourne, is proof. " My protests were ignored. "There is really nothing more I can do. If Mr. Weasley wakes up and can corroborate your story then perhaps we can discuss matters. Until then you will have to sit here and wait."

"Can I at least wait in the hospital wing? I want to be there when Fred wakes up." I tried looking as pitiful as possible.

A sigh escaped her. "I'm afraid not." She didn't elaborate why, but I knew it was because I could still be a danger to him. "What we have is an incredibly ill boy and no one to back up your story. Please remain here until Claire, Michelle, or George come back."

"That's what I'm telling you. Michelle is definitely not coming back, she's out there in a cave, dead. Just lying on the floor, dead. She really can't get any deader."

"I get your point. She's dead." Her lips pursed in annoyance.

"And come on, who knows when George will get here. He had to deal with that crazy bi—that crazy French girl… You know I don't think she's even French. Did I tell you that she changed her accent?"

"What did I miss?" George walked into the office towing behind him an unconscious, levitating Claire. "Sorry, she was going to hurt herself if I didn't stop her, not that I really cared, but I wanted her alive so that she could clear Mia's name."

I rushed forward and hugged George like my life depended on it. "Thank you."

He extricated himself from my crushing grip. "Save those hugs for Fred." Before I had the chance to bombard him with questions about him dropping the 'L' bomb on me, McGonagall ushered him towards Dumbledore's office.

"Mr Weasley please bring Claire for questioning. Mia, please stay here while we try to sort everything out." I didn't bother to respond because the moment she left the room I was on my feet headed towards the Hospital Wing.

My heart nearly shattered when I saw Fred with beads of sweat pouring down his face, his pallor completely ashy. His eyes flickered open and rested on my face. "Mia." He croaked out. I was aware of his eyes boring into me as I approached the side of the bed.

"Hey." I whispered.

"There's my Mia Mouse." He rasped, taking in my disheveled appearance. "You don't look so good."

That was quite a statement coming from him. "Well you look like you got run over by the Hogwarts Express so don't go judging me, mister."

Fred chuckled, and pulled my hand to his mouth and kissed it. "That's what I hoped you would say." My heart hammered against my ribs. Of all the scenarios I had imagined over the years, this one wasn't even the brother of a shadow of a thought I'd had. "If my mouth didn't taste like puke, I would kiss you right now."

"Thanks for warning me," I giggled slightly.

"Mia I'm.." "Fred I'm.." We began together. "You first," I nudged, my stomach too full of butterflies to properly convey my feelings.

"Mia, I'm sorry for what happened yesterday. George was just teasing you and me because he knew I was trying to get up the courage to ask you out. I wanted to come and tell you yesterday, but I didn't know what to say." I let that information sink in. So George had not been pulling my leg about Fred. "You've always been funny, Mia, but these past few weeks you've become the person I thought you were deep down. I always wondered when you'd let yourself go and become the fun, and might I add loud, girl you always were around me."

"The reason I did it was because you gave me the courage. I always thought I didn't belong in Gryffindor, but you taught me that being in Gryffindor meant being loyal to your friends and trusting them no matter what. I'm sorry for how I acted last night. I replayed it a million times and I knew I had overreacted."

He linked our hands and rubbed a thumb over my knuckle. "I should have told you my feelings then, but I thought it would have been bad timing. George can be like a gossipy old woman sometimes." A chuckle escaped him. "Boy do I ever regret that decision now."

Watching him gain some color back his cheeks lifted my spirits. "I have to ask, how did Claire get you guys?"

Anger quickly replaced Fred's look of tenderness. "I don't know when she got George, but I noticed he was missing and I assumed he had gone ahead of me to watch Michelle." His face softened. "Yes, we were still going to do some stalking for you. Claire met me on the road over and told me how you had asked her to do some digging into Michelle. She asked me if I wanted a biscuit and I took a bite of it like an idiot. The look on her face let me know immediately that something was wrong so I grabbed a puking pastie and vomited my brains out. That's the last thing I remember."

"You got lucky because she thought you were George, so she didn't bother finishing the job. She went on this crazy rant about guys and tried to force me to kill him."

"Is George alright?" Trying to ease his concern, I spent the next ten minutes describing what happened with Claire and Fred burst out laughing when I reached the end. "A vomit fountain? That could be the best thing I've ever heard. I wish I had been there."

"No, I'm really glad you weren't." I leaned forward and pressed my forehead against our intertwined hands. "She really wanted to kill you." It happened that exact moment. I looked up from the scratchy bed sheets and Fred's face smacked right into mine.. in a good way. His lips descended on mine and I am almost certain we snogged for ten minutes. I learned what first and second base was that day. He had been right about his mouth tasting a little bitter, but I barely noticed since fireworks were exploding in my brain. All I could think was, 'About freaking time'.

The End

Alright it's not really the end. You probably have a couple of questions about the events from the previous chapter right? Geez you people ask so many damn questions.

First - Why did my chocolates cause Claire to puke?

Well George answered that one pretty quickly. As Fred told me, he was planning on asking me out and George, seeing that he would no longer be allowed to pull tricks on me, took it upon himself to do one final trick. He injected all of my hazelnut chocolate with the substance from the puking pasties. He 'might have upped the dosage' because it was going to be the prank to end all pranks with me. I had to admit that seeing Claire puke up a fountain of vomit was kind of hilarious. I told him I fully supported his career in making vomit-inducing candy.

Second - Why did Claire's voice change?

You'll never believe it, but Claire's family is rich. Filthy rich. Rich to the point that they paid other schools to keep the 'mishaps' associated with Claire quiet. Admittedly, she never killed anyone at her old schools, but most of them became catatonic or hysterical after eating her biscuits. So whenever she changed schools her parents paid instructors to teach her German, French, Italian (she really did go to four different schools before getting caught here). Of course I assumed she used some kind of spell on her parents, but apparently they're just terrible people and didn't really care that their daughter was a raving lunatic. From rumors I heard afterwards, her parents tried bribing Dumbledore with over ten thousand galleons to let her go and he sent them a box of bertie bots every flavor beans with only earwax in them. I don't know if that's actually true, but I like to believe it is.

Third - Did I get in trouble with McGonagall?

Of course. She ripped me apart when she found out I had left her office, but I think she held back a little considering Claire, with the assistance of a little truth serum, had divulged her entire plot to kill the male species. Much to my dismay, she escorted me away from Fred and I had the longest conversation with Dumbledore in my life. Surprisingly, he never seemed to doubt what I was saying. Maybe the old codger wasn't as bad as I always thought. I did see Claire one last time while I was in Dumbledore's office. She said in the calmest voice I'd ever heard, "She wanted to kill her boyfriend just as much as I did. I don't know why she isn't being sent to St. Mundgo's Hospital too." I unleashed five years of repressed feelings on her and boy did I enjoy it. I can't really go into detail because most of the words aren't appropriate for anyone's ears. People don't call me mouse anymore.

Fourth - What happened with me and Fred?

Simple, I fell deeply and madly in love with him because he is the most charming and amazing person ever. Did I mention that he is hilarious. He also has washboard abs and amazing biceps. I could stare at them all day long. We go on moonlight walks on the beach and stare at each other lovingly for hours and hours because he's just so awesome. I'm the luckiest girl alive.

Ah hem. Yeah, so I definitely did not write the above passage. Someone who shall go unnamed found out I was writing a story involving them and decided to interject their own little spin on events. So what really happened with Fred and me? Let's just say the above passage isn't that far off. I'm in my last year at Hogwarts and Fred is running his sweets shop with George. I'll just say that he's not half bad.

He is spectacular at everything in the bedroom. He's also huge.

Alright, the person who shall go unnamed is forever banned from anything to do with the bedroom. If he happens to be reading this right now, he should feel ashamed. Well that's about it from my end. Now you know the story of the batshit-insane girl who tried to kill off the entire male population with biscuits, and my secret obsession with Fred Weasley. I guess it's not much of a secret anymore, is it?

* * *

Oh I hate endings. They're so bittersweet. I think Mia might be the most fun character I've ever written. Trying to think so negatively was quite a challenge. I'm usually the 'see the bright side of life' kind of person. Anyways, I hope you all enjoyed it and are looking forward to more chapters from my other selection of stories. A lot of people seemed to really enjoy 'A Friendship Broken' which was also a joy to write.

I love hearing back from you guys. Love it or hate it, feel free to leave a comment :). Until next time! ~Kukaburry


End file.
